KEY POINTS:
Church leaders will issue a "call to action" to politicians today to restore benefit rates that were cut 17 years ago and have never been raised since, apart from adjustment for inflation.
The New Zealand leaders of the Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches and the Salvation Army say voters in this year's election need to know "the commitment of individual politicians to just and compassionate policies".
"Our primary concern since the Hikoi of Hope held 10 years ago has remained constant," they say in a statement headed Towards a More Just and Compassionate Society.
"That concern is that the impact of all decisions taken by our elected public representatives and policy makers must be measured in terms of the quality of life of the most vulnerable in our society.
"We know from the work of our social service arms affiliated with the Council of Christian Social Services that many members of our society are still suffering from the effects of economic policies that were put in place by successive Governments in previous decades and that lacked a sufficiently strong social conscience."
The council's president, former Salvation Army commissioner for Australia and New Zealand Ross Kendrew, said beneficiaries could not make ends meet on benefit levels that were cut in the "mother of all Budgets" in 1991.
Mr Kendrew is now a volunteer budget adviser in Wellington and said even working families on low incomes were struggling with recent price increases for food, petrol and other essentials.
"I'm dealing with a family at the moment with an income of $680 a week, paying $300 a week in rent.
"By the time you pay the utilities and food, there is a deficit."
Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson announced yesterday that benefits would increase on April 1 by 3.18 per cent, in line with inflation in the past year. This would give a solo parent an increase of $8.13 a week to $263.78 a week after tax.
A Massey University report this week found that average rents have risen by 7.1 per cent in the past year.
The church leaders - Anglican Archbishop David Moxon, Baptist leader Rodney Macann, Catholic Archbishop John Dew, Methodist leader Brian Turner, Presbyterian Moderator Pamela Tankersley and Salvation Army Commissioner Garth McKenzie - said this election was "a unique opportunity to intensify discussion about the type of society we live in".
"From our shared Christian perspective, our starting point for the type of society we want to live in is a conviction that our humanity is constituted most profoundly by our relationships with each other and a commitment to the common good," they said.
"Decisions that are fuelled by self-interest serve only to perpetuate a society that is marked by a division into the rich and the poor, the haves and the have-nots ...
"Any neglect of our responsibilities to our families and communities puts both our personal and societal wellbeing at risk.
"A broad view of who our neighbour is also encompasses our obligations as a member of the international community, and the continual seeking of new directions for the sake of future generations."
