Income-related rent (IRR) for social housing tenants is to increase from 25% to 30% of the tenant\u2019s income. The changes will come into force on April 1, 2027.<\/p>\n
The reforms are expected to save the Government $387.5m with $374.3m of that to be reinvested in increasing the accommodation supplement for tenants in private rentals.<\/p>\n
But Rob said there were other hidden costs K\u0101inga Ora residents had that the Government may not be considering.<\/p>\n
\u201cElderly still have to rely on being picked up or getting drop-offs, meals on wheels and everything like that. And, I mean, that all adds up. It really does.\u201d<\/p>\n
The ministers for housing and social development were asked to comment on the concerns raised by K\u0101inga Ora tenants the Gisborne Herald spoke to.<\/p>\n
Bishop\u2019s team responded with direction to a PowerPoint publicly available on the Beehive website. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Louise Upston, Minister of Social Development (MSD), responded in a statement.<\/p>\n
Social housing reforms were announced last week by ministers Chris Bishop and Louise Upston. Photo \/ Michael Craig <\/p>\n
\u201cMSD provides a range of other financial supports for people with specific costs,\u201d the statement said. \u201cFor example, support for costs of a disability can be provided through the Disability Allowance \u2013 and that can include travel costs and costs associated with prescriptions or medical appointments.<\/p>\n
\u201cOlder people experiencing hardship are encouraged to contact Work and Income to check what they are entitled to receive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Impact on single parents<\/p>\n
John (name changed for privacy reasons) and his teenage son moved into a Gisborne K\u0101inga Ora home about two years ago. He\u2019s not working and receives a benefit as a solo parent. He said the move was a \u201cblessing\u201d.<\/p>\n
John had been living in a motel for two-and-a-half years before he moved into the K\u0101inga Ora home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t put that on anyone, going through that for two-and-a-half years, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The move meant his son could have his own room and John could have some privacy.<\/p>\n
He is concerned at how the reforms will affect his situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just trying to make it harder for the lower-income people,\u201d John said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re already finding it hard as it is \u2026 just trying to get by every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
John\u2019s main costs are food and fuel. He often can\u2019t afford to drop his son to school due to rising fuel costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re just trying to make it worse for us. [We\u2019re] just trying to make ends meet with what we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Income-related rent for social housing tenants is set to increase from 25% to 30% of a tenant\u2019s income. Photo \/ Kim Parkinson<\/p>\n
Rob is uncertain as to how the reforms will affect his father\u2019s living situation and believes other solutions should be considered. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhy not pick on the rich people? End of story. You know, all the millionaires who we\u2019ve got in New Zealand, which we\u2019ve got plenty of, so why can\u2019t they give them a bigger tax bracket?\u201d<\/p>\n
Shannon Soughtton, group general manager service improvement and delivery for MSD, encouraged social housing tenants who were impacted by the reforms to contact their housing provider or MSD for further support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe elderly suffer enough, and especially for low-income families and everything like that … you\u2019ve got to fight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6127,95,20217,3276,802,15453,84022,2893,4522,71,14724,12506,42,10938,13484,29012,3339,23500,15221,229899,5345,5978,35020,6722,3051,43,1536,5256,3766,5202,43296,8263,16401,6448,312,3168,1072,59353,44970,35836,666,17292,8229,40,38,41,39,8238,1533,102,379],"class_list":["post-451686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-already","tag-and","tag-bishop","tag-chris","tag-costs","tag-elderly","tag-fairness","tag-fear","tag-feel","tag-from","tag-further","tag-gisborne","tag-headlines","tag-herald","tag-higher","tag-households","tag-housing","tag-impact","tag-improve","tag-incomerelated","tag-increase","tag-might","tag-mills","tag-minister","tag-necessary","tag-news","tag-next","tag-overhaul","tag-parents","tag-part","tag-puts","tag-reforms","tag-rent","tag-reporter","tag-says","tag-shared","tag-social","tag-solo","tag-spoke","tag-strain","tag-struggling","tag-tenants","tag-they","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-under","tag-will","tag-with","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451686","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=451686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}