Greens say application denials for advanced benefit payments ‘skyrocketed’ last year
The Greens say the number of applications for advanced support being denied has “skyrocketed” during the last year and people are being denied assistance for basic essentials.
But the Minister for Social Development Louise Upston says there’s been no policy change and she’s not concerned because “advances create greater hardship down the track”.
Data provided by the minister shows the number of declined applications for payment advances to help with clothing has doubled and declines for help with electricity costs has more than doubled compared to the quarter ending June 2023.
Advance payments of a benefit is a one-off payment to help pay for essential or emergency costs. MSD can help with costs such as electricity, dental treatment, essential home repairs, glasses, washing machines, car repairs and more.
Between June 2023 and June 2025 there has been an increase in declined applications of:
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- 72% for appliances: 327 applications declined in June 2023 compared to 564 declined in June 2025
- 91% for bedding: 366 compared to 699
- 82% for beds: 375 compared to 684
- 65% for car repairs: 1551 compared to 2556
- 102% for clothing: 1515 compared to 3060
- 36% for dental treatment: 1317 compared to 1785
- 160% for electricity: 300 compared to 780
- 83% for essential home repairs: 54 compared to 99
- 52% for fridge/ freezer: 219 compared to 333
- 86% for furniture: 342 compared to 636
Some of the most common reasons these applications are denied include whether the circumstances could have reasonably been foreseen, the person had already received help for the same or similar need in the past, or that it wasn’t a qualifying need.
The reason advances were declined because circumstances could have been reasonably foreseen, and declined because it was not a qualifying need, have both doubled compared to June 2023.
All this policy is missing is a coat made of 101 Dalmatians.
Just consider this Government’s cruel war on beneficiaries.
Right now, thousands of people in Aotearoa New Zealand are being sanctioned by the Ministry of Social Development. These sanctions reduce already inadequate incomes and punish families who are struggling to survive.
CPAG’s recent Below the Income Floor research shows that more and more households relying on income support are in deficit. That means their income is falling below the bare minimum needed to cover essentials, let alone to participate fully in society.
While the Government insists sanctions are about “compliance”, the facts tell a different story. Sanctions rose sharply in both the March and June 2025 quarters, even before the Social Security Amendment Act 2025 came into effect in May.
In reality, there are many reasons why someone might miss an MSD appointment, ranging from childcare, to health or transport issues, all made worse by the prolonged cost of living crisis. A Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) client had their benefit halved after they missed their Work and Income meeting due to their child being unwell.
Instead of recognising these barriers, the Government continues to punish families who are already doing it tough, despite the Government restating its commitment in May to the legislated 2028 goal of halving child poverty.
…When unemployment is 5.3 these new welfare sanctions are just political cruelty…
New ‘non-financial’ benefit sanctions begin today
New “non-financial” benefit sanctions starting today are about having “more tools available” than the current options, says the Minister for Social Development.
…the ‘Money Management’ punishment is called a ‘non-financial’ sanction, but that’s bullshit! It cuts welfare in half by 50% and forces it onto a card that people can’t use to pay rent or bills with…
New welfare sanctions could stop families paying rent, officials warn
Welfare officials say new Government policy, introducing new ways to sanction beneficiaries who did not meet their obligations to MSD, could lead to consequences such as families being unable to pay rent and basic bills.
The comment came during a scrutiny week hearing, in which Green and Labour MPs sounded alarm about new sanctions and whether the Government would dust off dormant provisions of the Social Security Act to punish parents who fail to meet “social obligations”.
…it is designed to make being on welfare impossible, that’s the point.
The second sanction is ‘Community Work Experience’ which again is a set of hoops that if not completed leads to cuts in welfare.
The reason the Government are introducing these new sanctions is because the Regulatory Impact Statement for the legislation warned these new penalties “exacerbates the risk of a client facing hardship”, and that’s the point!
This is designed yo be so difficult people are forced off welfare.
Only 1.2% of beneficiaries are currently not complying with the existing job ready demands so this Government has created new ‘non-financial’ tactics to use to make people not comply!
Once someone is sanctioned with a ‘Money Management scheme’ or ‘Community Work Experience scheme’ they become ineligible for emergency housing or special needs grants so that they fall over on purpose!
MSD now want 6 monthly reviews but hilariously they cut workers so can’t manage a 6 month review – what was the Government’s solution? Why they will use AI to find a discrepancy to penalise you with and they will use AI to reject your claim so you are forced to find a real staff member to try and get it back.
They have doubled the length of time they can punish you for when trawling through your life and there is actually no clear path off the ‘Money Management scheme’ or ‘Community Work Experience scheme’ once you get punished with it.
This Government is so hell bent on screwing over the poor to find their tax cuts for the rich, they’ve even gone after sole parents whop rent a room out to a Boarder!
Labour accuses govt of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing bill under urgency
A post-Budget debate about changes to an accommodation supplement unusually dragged on into the early hours of Saturday morning, as opposition parties tried in vain to block the changes.
The House sat under urgency to debate a dozen bills, when a vote on the Social Assistance Legislation (Accommodation Supplement and Income-related Rent) Amendment Bill was called at about 11.30pm.
Usually, Parliament would not sit beyond midnight, but once a vote commences, it cannot stop without leave. That leave was sought by Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, but denied by government MPs.
Instead, opposition parties filed dozens of minor amendments, dragging out the proceedings. McAnulty accused the government of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing the bill under urgency.
“There’s no reason for this bill to go through under urgency, it’s got nothing to do with the Budget really,” he told RNZ. “They are going to try and save money from this bill to fill the gaps in their Budget.
“It should go to select committee and New Zealanders should have an opportunity to have their say.”
“We saw this with the Pay Equity Bill recently and now they’re doing it with this bill as well, and we oppose it. Many New Zealanders don’t know it’s happening, because it’s getting rushed through.”
Under the change, every boarder a person has will be taken into account, when their accommodation supplement is calculated by Work and Income. Currently, only those with three or more boarders have their supplement reduced.
McAnulty said more than 7000 people would be affected by the changes, which would reduce subsidies by roughly $100 a week.
How spiteful is this Government?
They rammed through under urgency legislation originally set up to try and help Sole Parents with housing costs by allowing them 2 Boarders to help pay the rent.
These changes will force Sole Parents who have Boarders to now include their share of the rent in their own housing allowance calculations meaning those sole parents (or head tenants) who have 1 or 2 Boarders will lose $100 a week in their own housing allowance!
It is such a spiteful and brutal thing to do to Renters who have a Boarder to help cover costs, these people are not rolling in cash, they are just keeping their heads above water.
National are so desperate to take money from the poor to fund the rich, they are coming after sole parent renters who have a Boarder!
National take today what tomorrow never brings!
Then there is their weird Gimp advert bashing teenagers on welfare.
AI video but real effective policy pic.twitter.com/6h9uaQWqXA
— NZ National Party (@NZNationalParty) October 14, 2025
So much to unpack here.
Firstly, why is Labour shaped like Gumby playing video games with a teenager, because that seems pretty cool…
…secondly, why are National in a blue gimp suit and why are they breaking into their house…
…why is National’s penis so tiny?
That is A LOT of small dick energy in one tweet.
Why is the National Party channeling the Pulp Fiction gimp?
Is the National Party Gimp expecting some kind of sado-masochistic 3some with the teenager and Labour Party Gumby now he’s shut off the Video Game?
Note that once the National Party Gimp is standing in their lounge room, the teenager and Labour Gumby flee…
…so the message here is small penis National Party Gimp will break into your home, stand threateningly over you until you run away?
Is this a social policy or weird sexual fantasy?
Look.
Prime Minister Chris Luxon decided to do what the National Party have always done when polls are dropping, and that is to bash the dirty filthy bennies by forcing 18 and 19 year olds off welfare and calling that ‘tough love’, even those who are disabled FFS…
Hundreds of teens with a health condition, disability may be cut from Jobseeker benefit
…when asked where these teenagers were supposed to get jobs, the PM claimed that businesses were calling out for young workers.
When contacted by media about those claims, Business said, ‘no we are not, we are barely staying afloat as it is”.
Bashing the dirty filthy bennie is always a vote winner when the economy fails and Chris Luxon is so weak he needs to bash teenagers on benefits to look tough.
Telling unemployed teenagers that “The world doesn’t owe you a living” is all fine and dandy, but he’s also the Prime Minister who has destroyed 6000 jobs in retail and hospo while destroying 20 000 in construction. The world doesn’t owe anyone a living but equally where are they supposed to get a job when he’s so busy destroying them?
This isn’t ‘tough love’, it’s ‘Manufactured righteousness
How does removing the jobless benefit from 4,300 unemployed 18-19 year olds and making them stay or return home to be supported by parents on less than $65,529 per annum going to help any single one of them find a job?
There are 216 000 people on jobseeker benefits and only 10 442 jobs open around the country. With 15 000 18 to 19 year olds on job seeker – where on earth are they supposed to get jobs while competing against older job seekers?
Unemployment is 6.2% in Auckland – Ikea received more than 25,000 applicants for 500 positions at its new Auckland mega-store. Doesn’t that level of desperation make the Prime Ministers comments look cruel and out of touch?
The Prime Minister said “If you want a job, you go where the jobs are I encourage anyone to do what it takes to get a job.” – they are doing that and 210 are fleeing to Australia every day – how is that a positive outcome?
Bashing these teenage beneficiaries and cutting them off welfare will only save $39million per year. This isn’t a real social policy is it, this is a revenge fantasy masquerading as a social policy
Luxon’s advice to the 15,045 teenagers on the jobseeker benefit was, “The world doesn’t owe you a living”, ok – but surely he’s responsible for crashing the economy and tanking the jobs they can’t find – why are the teenagers responsible but he isn’t?
This isn’t a real response to the economic crash his policies have created, this a just a virtue signal to his redneck reactionary base who hate beneficiaries and want to give them the bash.
I’m not sure how small penis National Party Gimp is helping convince anyone that these brutal sanctions are anything other than a weird fetish.
At some point, you as Kiwis, you as Egalitarians, you as the children of Universal Suffrage, Nucle free, the 40 hour working week, surely you will get off your knees for the corporations and the rich and stand against this obscenity of. government.
Surely you haven’t been so manipulated by your post-Covid bitterness that you are now slaves to the rich?
Who are you Kiwi?
Get off your knees in servitude to the rich.
Rise Kiwi.
Rise.
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They’re persecuting and pushing down people who treated with respect and dignity would recover and contribute to our commonwealth. But are being disabled by cruel mad policies leading to helplessness and even suicide.
The treatment of the needy by Luxon & Upston is draconian and will go down in the annuls of NZ political history. This CoC should forever be known as the POLITICAL WRECKING BALL, driven by politicians devoid of a heart, soul or moral compass. Yes, there have and will always be lazy people out there BUT you don’t punish the masses, most of whom once had a job, food and shelter before this ‘rotten-to-the-core’ lot became the government. Shame on all of you who judge the down-trodden with such uncaring and glee. We can all see how this has evolved and continues to deteriorate. You can’t raise salaries/wages by percentages. Any fool can see that as top pay increases, bottom pay will never keep up. So we have produced a biased, uneven structure that continues to disgustingly reward those at the top – who of course made these decisions – and keeps those down the bottom desperate and barely making ends meet. It was always a recipe for disaster and no-one has ever fixed it! Time for a RESET!
Great rant Martyn. Captures everything we all need to wake up to.
Isn’t the solution obvious? It’s right there in the problem. “No one’s owed a living” yeah, not employers, not manufacturers not managers, not politicians, not even Chris Luxon. That isn’t the solution, that’s just me laughing at the moronically low level of rhetoric people have been slurping up since 1980.
Here’s a challenge. Before you fly the friendly skies in Albert Park J Day today, wander down the hill and give $20 to the nearest, or furthest, homeless person. Take a walk up to Federal street, Hobson Street, along K road if you’re brave, go out to the Lifewise end of the walk, you’ll find plenty of recipients. Unorganised unsynchronised unsung Flash Mob direct protest, putting money into the hands of those who need it most. Do it. You can afford it. Every single one of you. Imagine Luxon finding out homeless people got more of a welfare bonus for doing nothing, than his government has ever done, and he wasn’t in the slightest bit in control of it. Imagine him finding out we all actually don’t mind people sleeping on Queen street. We don’t hate them. They’re part of our community, for better or worse, for the better one day we hope, and not him or the council or any other distant mini wank can tell us to punch down like the cowards they are. If you can’t do that, don’t bother telling me you’re waiting for Labour Greens or anyone else. The point is we can take the power back. We don’t need to be organised, we don’t need to tell anyone we’re doing it. The power is in those small daily interactions. Walk up to the cup, put the money in the cup, walk away. You don’t have to say anything. Then go back to your life.
Have you any idea what you are talking about .Do you know where that $20 goes in many cases
Having spent the last 10 years helping to feed these street people any money that comes their way goes on drink or drugs it is not spent in improving their life . Rather than give money and walking away talk to them ask them what is happening in their life . to put themselves in this situation
.. Show you care
Talk is not food or shelter; even verses like James 2:16 show that this was known about 2,000 years ago, so you need to catch up with the times. You might be correct regarding cash donations; however, food, clothing, and places to live would probably be appreciated as well. Decent jobs and affordable housing are probably the most urgent needs for young people to enable them to succeed in life, so unless you have plans to fix that problem, it would seem that you don’t really care at all.
Well said Martyn.
But don’t expect much out of labour they have not introduced any of the 42 recommendations from their own welfare review report in 2017 when they were kicked out in 2023.
Only way change will come is when labour voters split vote red/green.