{"id":437296,"date":"2026-05-20T21:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437296\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T21:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T21:19:14","slug":"officials-warn-accommodation-supplement-changes-threaten-housing-security-ability-for-families-to-pay-for-food-clothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437296\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials warn accommodation supplement changes threaten housing security, ability for families to pay for food, clothing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSome home owners could experience an increased risk of housing insecurity and financial stress as they will be required to contribute more towards their accommodation costs,\u201d officials say in the document.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome home owners may also have less money available for spending on other necessities such as food, clothing, and transport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The accommodation supplement was introduced in 1993 under then-Finance Minister Ruth Richardson. Social Welfare Minister Louise Upston<\/a> said in the 33 years since it has not changed and there is a need to \u201crebalance\u201d it to ensure it targets \u201cthose with the greatest need, while continuing to support the most vulnerable groups\u201d.<\/p>\n

Upston said New Zealanders deserved a welfare system that was firm, fair and simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew Zealand\u2019s social safety net is important, but it\u2019s also important the system targets those most in need, and that it is sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the programme\u2019s inception, \u201cpeople with unsubsidised housing costs now generally pay a higher proportion of their income towards housing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Green Party MP Ricardo Men\u00e9ndez March said the changes were the Government \u201cstripping support from thousands of low-to-middle-income families who were already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"GreenGreen MP Ricardo Men\u00e9ndez March says people who access the accommodation supplement are already facing unaffordable housing costs. Photo \/ VNP<\/p>\n

\u201cLouise Upston will tell these families that there isn\u2019t enough to support them, while on the other hand her Government has billions for military equipment, tax cuts to landlords and subsidies for fossil fuel companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c$42 a week may not mean much for a wealthy Prime Minister, but it is a lifeline for working families. This Government is leaving struggling home owners less able to put food on the table and cover their bills, while the rich get richer under Christopher Luxon\u2019s watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Men\u00e9ndez March said people who accessed the accommodation supplement were already facing unaffordable housing costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the Government is concerned about the cost of the accommodation supplement, the answer is to build more public housing, implement rent controls, and tax wealth so we can redistribute that to essential services.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeaving working families struggling to cover the costs of essentials is deplorable. People deserve better than a minister who continuously turns her back on the people most affected by the cost of living, and the Greens will fight to restore these changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSome home owners could experience an increased risk of housing insecurity and financial stress as they will be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":437297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26504,62925,4500,1061,44997,39426,124,85989,5988,564,2082,266,1360,29012,3339,31869,7240,7494,223684,300,3025,111,43,139,69,10711,193,2744,2437,24562,7563,109209,61,26697,1455,102],"class_list":["post-437296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-ability","tag-accommodation","tag-changes","tag-children","tag-clothes","tag-clothing","tag-could","tag-essentials","tag-families","tag-food","tag-for","tag-government","tag-having","tag-households","tag-housing","tag-impacted","tag-lead","tag-less","tag-middleincome","tag-money","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-officials","tag-other","tag-pay","tag-security","tag-supplement","tag-those","tag-threaten","tag-to","tag-warn","tag-warning","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}