Editorial: Cost-of-living crisis deepens, no solutions in sight

The cost-of-living crisis affecting many New Zealanders is severely impacting people supported by the Auckland City Mission. Photo / Alex Burton

OPINION

Life is tough right now – and not just for low-income earners. Working families on what would be deemed good incomes are lying awake at night worrying about how they’ll pay their bills. Mortgages are rising, and so are rates and insurance costs (and that’s for those lucky enough to even have a mortgage).

Kiwis are downsizing, getting side hustles, taking in flatmates to slash the bills, budgeting wherever they can. Many still feel like nothing they do is enough. “No one is spending any money,” you’ll hear small business owners tell you. That’s because, once the bills are paid, there is no money left to spend.

More Kiwis are tapping into their KiwiSaver to withdraw funds because of financial hardship.

Inland Revenue data shows 3700 people withdrew savings for financial hardship reasons in April, compared with 1820 last April, RNZ reported. Combined withdrawals hit $30.1 million, up from $14.1m in 2023.

Hardship withdrawal numbers have exceeded first-home withdrawals since November, reversing the previous trend.

David Callanan, general manager of Corporate Trustee Services at Public Trust – a KiwiSaver supervisor in charge of approving hardship withdrawals – told the Herald it was a significant increase and had been continuing for a few years.

“The reality is we’re seeing more widespread vulnerability.

“What we see now is more instances where the kind of event where people previously would have been able to ride out, they aren’t able to anymore.

“And that is because there has been an ongoing increase in general living costs, in particular, the cost of having a roof over your head.”

The situation is about to worsen for Auckland households from Monday, when higher rates and water bills kick in.

From July 1, Auckland Council is raising rates by 6.8% and its water business, Watercare, is raising water bills by 7.2%.

The increase in rates and water bills will take the weekly cost from $94 to $100, an extra $6, or $300 over the next financial year.

It’s not just Tāmaki Makaurau either: In Hamilton, rates are rising by 16.5%, in Tauranga (13.1%), Wellington (16.4%), Christchurch (9.95%), and Dunedin (17.5%).

Data released in May suggests 485,000 Kiwis need food support every month, with Stats NZ figures showing that 12.5% of children live in households in material hardship.

In the past year, Auckland City Mission – Te Tāpui Atawhai and its partners helped New Zealand families in serious need with approximately 50,000 boxes of food, to about 2.5 million meals. But, as the Auckland city missioner wrote in a piece for the Herald this week, “most of this support is now set to come to an abrupt stop unless a recent Government funding cut is reviewed”.

A Wellington budgeting service has also had its government funding pulled, despite its manager saying they are “busier than ever”.

It’s bleak reading but it’s an important and real snapshot of New Zealand at the moment, where life is objectively so hard for so many.

Many will feel almost desensitised to stories of financial hardship, for seeing them so often. But that is precisely why we cannot ignore them.

The call from the other side of the Tasman is getting louder for many Kiwis – and who can blame anyone for chasing a better future for themselves and their family?

A small tax cut means very little when everything else is rising by so much more. We urgently need decisive action on easing the cost of living for low and middle-income earners.