Budget Day is gone and families are left to pick up the pieces

There are some nasty hooks that will impact our most vulnerable

Budget Day has been and gone, and there has been a great deal of analysis and consideration given to various items.

It is clear that this is budget for the wealthy, designed to give the already wealthy tax breaks and opportunities - at the expense of everyone else.

Businesses get an uncapped tax rebate of 20% for buying up large. Families get reduced Government contributions to KiwiSaver, limited access to Best Start payments, and will now be penalised for having boarders to assist with high rental costs.

Women get the removal of pay equity. ECE teachers get the removal of pay parity. People on Jobseeker sanctions have to provide their labour for free.

Pensioners in their own home get a modest rates rebate. 18- and 19-year-olds get more expensive tertiary study, limited employment opportunities, and the removal of Jobseeker support.

It’s a cruel budget, designed to make the lives of those on, near, or under the poverty line worse. When Willis was asked on Q+A about the lack of progress around child poverty targets, she was dismissive, stating “We didn’t campaign on making that positive change for low income families.”

One parent described the impact just one of the changes will have on them:

There is a wee sneaky budget change that has got not much publicity at all, and it is leaving me in despair. I have a 24 year old intellectually disabled son who boards with me.

While it was announced last year that income from boarders would count, I did not realise to the level it is. 62% of board will be taken as income, not the 25% I was expecting in my situation. One good thing is that it doesn't take effect till March, or even later for some next year.

In my situation being in social housing, it means my rent will double. It also means that I will be lucky to buy food and pay the power bill. I have been very fortunate so far, in being able to pay the bills and even save a bit of money for upcoming expenses, this will be gone.

For those that aren't in social housing, boarder income will now be taken off their rental payment, and will affect their TAS and AS. So say someone pays 700 rent, and their boarder pays 350, they will be able to claim only 350 of the rent. It's going to leave so many more in hardship. For those that were already struggling to buy food, it is going to make it impossible.

This Is going to push so many people closer to the edge. There's already very little funding for residential care, where do the adult children go when Mum or Dad can no longer pay the household expenses due to this change? I'm really worried for the mental health of those affected, or those who will be blindsided by this. I know about this and already feel worried and a bit sick about it.

This is the reality that families face when their small bits of support get cut, or “tweaked”. It doesn’t always make for big splashy headlines, and it can take a while after Budget Day for families to figure out how any changes will directly impact on them. I think about this parent, and all the other families, trying to figure out how to make ends meet now that their budget is diminished.

I can’t help but contrast their struggle to survive with this image from Paul Goldsmiths’ media account, captioned “Really positive Budget day - going for growth”. The disconnect from the ordinary lives of everyday New Zealanders is really quite something.

Last week I talked with Blake Forbes and Paul... The Other One about the budget. I noted that many of the touted ‘wins’ were ad hoc, geared more towards reducing noise from groups who had been actively protesting and gaining traction in mainstream media:

In short, there isn’t a carefully thought through plan of how we can support children with disabilities across the life span - instead we have some more funds for ORS and Learning Support (this is a major pain point for families), some funds for early intervention for Autism NZ (a key population group gaining media traction), and a bit for disability support so we don’t get families out protesting in the streets again. None of these areas are ‘joined up’, meaning we still have to navigate a fractured, complicated system designed to push us out at every opportunity.