Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni says the benefit increases will outweigh the cost of living crisis.
A range of payment changes come into force from April 1, including benefit increases and the halving of public transport fares for three months.
The minimum wage has also increased from $20 to $21.20 per hour, meaning Kiwis working 40 hours will see an extra $48 per week or $2500 per year.
Benefit and other payment increases also come into force from Friday, including a boost for Working for Families payments, with the Government estimating the incomes for 346,000 families will increase by an average of $20 per week.
However, there’s concerns the increases don’t go far enough to offset rising inflation.
The Consumer Price Index, which measures the average person’s cost of living, increased by 5.9% in the year to December, and is expected to rise in the coming months.
READ MORE: Will the Government's April 1 changes give you more cash?
Sepuloni acknowledged on Breakfast that there are “still whānau living in hardship”.
She said while the steps taken by the Government to change this are "significant", there is "more to do" and they are "committed to doing that".
However, she said their focus "from day one" has been "lifting children out of poverty and we’ve seen results there".
She said 66,000 children have been lifted out of poverty on the after-housing cost measure, with an estimated 33,000 others to follow with the benefit increases.
"That’s progress. There are still families living in hardship, though, and no one likes to see that."
READ MORE: Inflation hits 5.9%, biggest movement since 1990
Sepuloni said Kiwis have to remember it's "not just about income", adding that there are "a whole lot of things around that", including access to transport, food in schools, public housing, and affordable healthcare.
"There are so many places that we as a Government need to be investing and we are … but as we always say, there’s still more to do."
The Child Poverty Action Group criticised the Government’s raft of changes as "little more than an overdue inflation catch-up and substantive payments are needed to unlock all families from the constraints of poverty".
Sepuloni said while there is another Working for Families review currently underway to provide "insights and recommendations for what our next steps should be", the Government "shifted ahead" to provide families with an "extra, on average, $20 a week for over 350,000 whānau".
"That’s on top of the many other changes; it’s not one change or one policy or one action that will make the difference."
Andrew Hubbard says there is a really big gap between minimum liveable income and what income support provides. (Source: Breakfast)
Weekly benefit rates have also been lifted from $32 to $44 per adult per week.
However, there’s concerns the increase does not go far enough to offset the sharp increase in living costs seen in the past six months.
"We have to look at the inflation increase, which is 5.9%, I think, over the 12-month period, but the benefit increases from April to April are around 13 to 30% so they do outweigh the inflationary increases that we’re seeing.
"It’s not about one action – it’s about making sure that we’ve got the breadth of actions that actually make a meaningful difference in the lives of our whānau who are on the lowest incomes and I think that we’ve got the mix right but we’re always looking at what else we can do."
She stressed the importance when making changes that the Government is "not tinkering too much".
"Otherwise, you can get into a space where you make it even more complicated for whānau, there can be interactions that haven’t been thought through and so you give on one hand and whānau lose on the other.
"This has to be much more comprehensive than just continuing to go 'we’ll shift this, and then the next day, we’ll shift this' ... We’ve got to actually look at the whole system."
CPAG said of the welfare expert advisory group’s 42 key recommendations, which came out in 2019, none been fully addressed or implemented.
However, Sepuloni rejected the group’s criticisms, saying that "very few" of the advisory group’s recommendations are "tick box recommendations whereby you can just achieve this and it’s done".
"It’s an ongoing process in prioritising of the recommendations that are in there with regards to those informing the actions that we take.
"I do refute the fact that we haven’t done anything and I’m absolutely – along with the rest of the Government – focused on making sure that we continue the welfare overhaul that we started."
SHARE ME