The Government has no idea how much money it lent to beneficiaries to stay in motels, the Ministry for Social Development has admitted.

How much would you spend to feed a family of four for a week? $150? $200? 300? For many New Zealand families, a food budget like that is a distant dream. So how do you feed a family on a wafer-thin budget? South Auckland charity “Feed a Family” shows us how it can be done.

Margaret Sampson from Edmonton Primary School talks about how families are coping with low incomes.

Manurewa MP Louisa Wall asked consumers to add pads and tampons to their shopping lists, in order to help young women who are unable to afford them.

COMMENT: We have the power to change our own lives and far better to live a life of hope and ambition than one of hopelessness and despair.

Teenagers from poor families have more psychological problems if they live in rich areas, a new study has found.

He walked the streets and slept where he could shelter. Public spaces were his home and lots of people looked at him - but few actually saw him.

Items as basic as soap and toothbrushes are in growing need among the country's most impoverished children this winter, says a national charity.

Over one million tourists visited a township, favela or slum somewhere in the world in 2014.

COMMENT: Nothing can justify that 41,000 Kiwis have no safe place to lay their head each night.

Helen Clark is one of 11 candidates seeking the job, each of whom has held a public job interview with the UN General Assembly.

COMMENT: People in crisis need help, not judgment made in ignorance, writes the mother of a family once homeless.

Boxing legend David Tua will sleep in his car for a night next week, joining a growing national movement calling for houses for homeless families.

Hundreds spend night in cars in support of homeless families.

Mangere Town Centre carpark is packed with people this evening as they prepare to sleep in their cars for an event raising awareness on homelessness.

COMMENT: Heart-breaking stories of families living in cars, garages and overcrowded houses demonstrate that our welfare state is broken, writes Catriona MacLennan.

What makes people get into politics? Imagine being the Minister of Social Housing, and seeing someone who helps the homeless as the enemy.

Foketi Purcell gave her longtime friend Brenda Sekona a car, a thank you for taking her and her family in when two years earlier they had nowhere else to go.

Conservative lobby group blames "family malformation" - including parental breakups - as major culprit.

COMMENT: There's been far too much hysterical hanky wringing over the so-called problems of homelessness and poverty lately.

In 1993, New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

COMMENT: It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why the Government isn't making election promises to those in need.

Nia Glassie and Moko Rangitoheriri were both beaten to death at the age of 3.

Derek Handley has joined Eat My Lunch as an investor and advisor.

COMMENT: The problem of families with children forced to live in third-world conditions is eminently resolvable, writes Bryan Gould.

Mild weather has brought rough sleepers from all over NZ to Auckland, with the presence of extra homeless people resulting in more complaints about beggars.

A visiting British reading advocate says reading can help fight poverty.

For five years Syria has suffered through a civil war that has tortured its people and destroyed the country, writes World Vision's Chris Clarke. For five years too long children have witnessed things no one should ever see.

The world is full of opportunities to save money - if you just have enough money to access them.