The Government has talked a big game on reducing poverty.
It also claims to have put the empathy back into welfare, by directing case workers at Work and Income NZ to be less punitive on beneficiaries who don't fulfil their obligations.
But dozens have been queuing outside the Manurewa Work and Income office on a Thursday, because that's the day Auckland Action Against Poverty advocates are there to help people obtain emergency hardship grants; grants they say don't get awarded if people don't have an advocate in their corner.
That's a claim the Ministry of Social Development heavily disputes. In response to claims it was turning away people in need at Manurewa, the Government has touted its record in doling out hardship grants.
"The number of hardship grants provided by this Government has increased 60 per cent year on year. The value of hardship grants has gone from $81m to $128.5m from March [20]18 to March [20]19," Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni said.
In the short term, that may be a good statistic - if people need help then few can argue they should not receive it. But as a backstop option, the aim surely has to be to bring that number down, by reducing the number of people who need it in the first place.
And new data shows pressure on families is increasing. A Ministry of Health report claims food insecurity is worse than ever, with one in five Kiwi families struggling to put food on the table.
To reduce that, the Government must get on top of the housing supply - a large part of the equation that drives up rents. KiwiBuild has failed spectacularly and a reset is being developed with a new minister in charge. Meanwhile, the Government's state house building programme has seen reasonable success.
But it's not the only tool in the Government's arsenal in its war on poverty. Has it got the right strategy; is it doing enough to eradicate poverty in New Zealand?
Here's what it has actually done to alleviate poverty in its first two years, and how much credit it can claim.
The zuardian
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is also Minister for Child Poverty Reduction - a deliberate move to ensure the issue is given top priority status.
HOUSING AND THE COST OF LIVING
The cost of rent, power, food and a handful of other essential spends - like petrol - all make up the cost of living. So far, that cost has only increased over time, and at a faster rate than most incomes.
That means a precarious balance exists in many households, where an unexpected bill can leave a family one expense away from financial disaster. A Ministry of Health report released on Monday has estimated that in the 2015-16 year, nearly 20 per cent of families - or one in five - were living in a state of severe-to-moderate food insecurity.
At the 2015 Budget, the former government instilled a $790 million Families Package to reduce hardship among children in New Zealand's poorest families. While that increased work obligations on sole parents receiving a benefit, it also increased support for childcare and raised benefits by $25 per week for families with children.
There were a host of other increases across working for families too. That was proven to have lifted tens of thousands of children out of poverty, and it was a model the current Government built upon, and set itself the target of halving child poverty in 10 years - a target many have branded as fairly unambitious.
The zuardian
Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni has pointed to a marked increase in the number and amount of emergency hardship grants being handed out by the Government, as a means to counter claims people were being turned away if they didn't have an expert advocate.
In its first budget in 2018, the Government reversed planned tax cuts for middle and high income earners in favour of a universal baby bonus, for every child born at a value of up to $60 per week for its first year. More changes to benefits and Working for Families tax credits saw the Government throw $5.5b at the poverty problem in its first year, but with a promise there wouldn't be much more than that for a while.
The cost of rents is by far the biggest problem facing households, exacerbated by a shortage in supply and a low-quality housing stock that adds to already-expensive power bills.
The aforementioned KiwiBuild project, aimed at addressing supply issues in the private market is so far an unmitigated write-off. The Government has gone back to the drawing board.
The Zuardian
Child poverty has seen some gains, but they'll likely be limited until the Government fixes the housing problem.
But a successful state house building programme has seen a nine-fold increase in the number being built compared with 2016. At the same time, the waiting list for social housing has reached record levels. The Government has always made the argument that people are are less afraid to ask for help than they were under the previous government, but it's a claim that doesn't hold much water when we're talking families who are struggling to put food on the table.
CHILD POVERTY
The prime minister has made child poverty a personal project and has committed the Government - and future governments - to setting child poverty reduction targets across a range of key measures.
This Government's targets will aim to lift 80,000 children out of material hardship – from about 13 per cent down to 6 per cent. It's debateable as to how ambitious that is, considering the 2017 Child Poverty Monitor report showed 20,000 lifted out of poverty following the previous government's first families package.
That represented the first change in a statistic that had stubbornly refused to improve for decades. Data is yet to be released on the impact of this Government's families package, but there's a reasonable chance it will build further on the last.
That might suggest both governments have finally stumbled on a formula that works in some respects. But until housing is sorted, there's a limit to what any government will ever achieve.
