Taxpayers' Union says Labour Party plans for "universal basic income" will come with hefty price tag.

Rising rents are believed to be driving a 46 per cent jump in food parcels being handed out each month by the Auckland City Mission since the middle of last year.

Applicants who are "too picky" will be removed from the waiting list under stricter new rules.

Welfare rolls have risen in Canterbury for the first time since reconstruction work began after the 2011 earthquake.

It's a simple formula: buy a delicious lunch, and a hungry child will get one too.

The latest report tells us 29 per cent of children lived in poverty in 2014, up from 24 per cent the previous year. About 14 per cent live in material hardship, lacking several of the items most New Zealanders would consider essential.

The Children's Commissioner is overwhelmed by the public response to his new social media campaign.

The Government has a long-term plan of introducing "milestone payments" for non-government providers which improved the social outcomes of their tenants.

One of New Zealand's biggest aged-care providers is believed to have been picked by Auckland Council to take over managing the council's 1412 pensioner flats.

Pensioners, disabled people and low-income families will benefit from a surprise Government decision to fund 508 social housing units in Auckland.

When Daryl Brougham was 11, his social worker said: "Daryl, the way you're going, you're going to end up in jail."

Growing numbers of Kiwis risk becoming homeless in old age because of falling home ownership rates, rising rents and static housing subsidies, the Salvation Army says.

The Citizens Advice Bureau said the shortage was experienced not just in Auckland and Christchurch, but nationwide.

More than 30,000 New Zealanders had their benefits cut last financial year for travelling overseas without letting officials know.

COMMENT: Tuhoe boss Tamati Kruger wants the tribe to be independent and free of welfare dependency - which is a good thing, writes Rodney Hide.

The CYF review panel recommends a child-centred system, "where the voices and needs of children and young people are at the forefront of everything the agency does".

State house tenants from around New Zealand plan to march on Parliament against Government plans to sell 1600 houses in Tauranga and Invercargill.

Having lived a life on the streets, Sue Henry believes in the right to a home. She's been fighting for state housing tenants since the 1980s.

They don't deserve to be swept off the streets like just another pile of rubbish, writes Kerre McIvor.

The disabled boy social workers said was being used by his alcoholic mother and her boyfriend has lost access to a vehicle specially modified to meet his needs.

It is a grim glimpse of the front line of social work - an 1100-page dossier of abuse and misery cataloguing the life of Benjamin*.

Severely disabled child used by his alcoholic mother and her boyfriend to access up to $80,000 in benefits.

It is extraordinary that a West Auckland teenager was held in police station cells for four days because CYFs could not find a bed for her, Labour says.

Rangi Tikitiki's is tired of "being a refugee in my own country", he's been on a waiting list for a Housing NZ home since before he began camping at the park.

Every person in the country aged up to 17 has been screened for factors that could later see their life take a turn for the worse - and cost taxpayers.

"These kids just need a chance, it's really hard at 17, they are too old to be in the system but too young to have rights."

Walz Brown works quietly behind the scenes for the youth of Manurewa, always mindful of how a helping hand, a skateboard and his son lifted him from a life of drugs, drink and despair.