Fifty-three per cent of Christchurch people surveyed by Nielsen say they are not as well off as they were last year. The technical term used in the wellbeing survey report is “reduced financial wellbeing”.
But I think we’d all agree that “reduced financial wellbeing” is a sugar-coated way of saying people are finding life much more of a struggle than they were just 12 months ago.
In fact, if there’s anything I’d dispute in these findings, it’s the 53 per cent figure. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that they’re feeling more well-off than they used to.
You might be. But somehow I doubt it.
And I don’t think this is just a Christchurch city thing. I think it’s fairly safe to assume that the findings would be similar anywhere.
Because I’m in no doubt that life is way more expensive than it was - even just 12 months ago. And the official numbers back it up.
That inflation figure that came out yesterday was still pretty close to the record high a month ago and I see, since yesterday, the Government has said it has no plans for any further assistance to make life a bit easier on the financial front.
No more cost-of-living payments are on the cards, the fuel tax discount is going to be history by early next year. So, you’re on your own. We’re all on our own.
Which means different things for different people.
For me, while life is undoubtedly more expensive, by the grace of God I am in the privileged position where I don’t need foodbanks to help feed the family. I do know, though, that that could change in a heartbeat.
Because I reckon for pretty much all of us, we’d only need one or two things to happen to completely turn our lives upside down. A guy’s wife leaves him, he spirals into depression, loses his job, can’t pay the bills and before he knows it he’s living in his car or on the street.
So while I consider myself to be in a very fortunate position, I know there are many, many people whose lives are very different to mine.
And I think the head of Foodbank Canterbury makes a very good point when he says it’s not necessarily easy anymore to tell which people are actually doing it tough.
I saw a quote from him where he said: “It is not just the people on the street who are struggling. It is the people in your street.”
And he goes on to say: “The person standing next to you at the bus stop could be hungry. That woman walking her dog might not have had any food that day. You never know.”
John Milligan is his name, and he says that people fear losing their dignity when they don’t have food - and so many of them don’t ask.
Not that there’s a shortage of people who do ask for help. Who need help.
I remember taking some things to the foodbank just before Christmas last year and they had two queues. One was for people like me dropping stuff off, the other was for people there to pick up a food parcel.
And which queue was longer do you think? It was the queue of people needing help. It didn’t take me very long at all to get in and do the drop-off.
And going by these findings today from the 2022 Quality of Life Survey, the queue of people needing food parcels this Christmas in Christchurch will be even longer.
