{"id":832318,"date":"2026-07-30T00:19:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832318\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T00:19:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:19:13","slug":"simple-things-make-it-really-difficult-why-pensioner-households-have-had-fastest-inflation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/832318\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Simple things make it really difficult\u2019: Why pensioner households have had fastest inflation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Data from Stats NZ this week showed he isn\u2019t the only one feeling the pressure. Superannuitant households had the highest annual inflation rate of any household type<\/a>, up 4.5% over a year, compared to 3.7% for beneficiaries and 3.2% for all households.<\/p>\n

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said electricity, up 12%, and rates up 8.8%, were big drivers of the increase for pensioner households. Petrol was also a factor.<\/p>\n

Karen Billings-Jensen, chief executive at Age Concern, said 40% of retired households only had NZ Super as their income.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that challenge of a fixed income\u2026 as cost goes up, it just makes things much tougher. We know that rates of home ownership are slightly higher in older people\u2026 66% of those over 65 own their own home. That\u2019s where things like the huge rates increase we\u2019ve seen across most council areas has had an impact because it\u2019s those fixed costs, rates, insurance \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

She said people who owned their own homes also had challenges when it came to repairs and maintenance.<\/p>\n

Some older people were also still supporting their children and grandchildren<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re cutting back to do that. We get concerned when we hear that people are cutting back on meals, particularly because of the impact the reduced nutrition will have on the ageing process, on healing, wound healing, on strength and balance\u2026 when you\u2019re on that fixed income when there are life shocks you may not have anything to draw on in terms of if you have a car suddenly needing to replace a tyre or things like that. It can be quite simple things that make it really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Data from financial mentor network Fincap showed that mentoring clients aged over 65 were spending 42% of their income on rent or board, which was the second-highest of any age range. They were spending 14% on debt repayment, the joint second-highest group.<\/p>\n

Billings-Jensen said some were turning to food banks for help.<\/p>\n

David Verry, a financial mentor at North Harbour Budgeting Services, said the downside to home ownership in retirement was rates and insurance increases.<\/p>\n

He said he felt power was also going to be a big issue for many pensioners this election.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those that also have health insurance \u2013 very few as many will have abandoned due to the other cost increases \u2013 it\u2019s even worse. By way of example, my health insurer increased our premiums by 30% this year so we\u2019ve increased our excesses to bring the cost down … and then of course increased fuel prices as a further nail in the inevitable coffin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eckhold\u2019s colleague, senior economist Satish Ranchhod, said a reason that superannuitant households stood out in the data was that they had not benefited from a drop in home loan interest costs over the year, which had helped many others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest factor that has reduced households\u2019 living costs over the past year has been the fall in mortgage interest costs. But superannuitants are less likely to have a mortgage than those who are in their 30s or 40s, for example. So they wouldn\u2019t have felt the same relief in living costs that some other New Zealanders have.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the pressure on the cost of essentials has been felt by all income groups, including superannuitants, with big increases for items like fuel, electricity, and council rates. Food costs are also a big concern for a lot of families.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Data from Stats NZ this week showed he isn\u2019t the only one feeling the pressure. Superannuitant households had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832319,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,135218,164,64407,25219,109396,1899,42930,5465,1467,10873,38234,78040,211426,64406,4987,16363],"class_list":["post-832318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-difficult","tag-economy","tag-edmunds","tag-fastest","tag-had","tag-have","tag-households","tag-inflation","tag-it","tag-make","tag-pensioner","tag-really","tag-simple","tag-susan","tag-things","tag-why"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=832318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832318\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}