The Government earlier this year increased the accommodation supplement for people in private rentals, but at the same time increased effective rents for people in public housing. <\/p>\n
The switch was not quite neutral, saving the Government money, although the Government\u2019s estimates of the savings are smaller than what the Labour Party and the Taxpayers\u2019 Union have been warring over, and could be as low as $14m. <\/p>\n
The higher figure in the Labour plan appears to come from adding an extra year to the forecast.<\/p>\n
The original line in Labour’s Fiscal Plan. Photo \/ Thomas Coughlan<\/p>\n
Taxpayers\u2019 Union head of policy James Ross said in a release: \u201cLabour has made a nearly $90 million error in its fiscal plan by incorrectly recording a $44.8 million cost to reverse the Government\u2019s Income Related Rent Subsidy and Accommodation Supplement changes as a saving\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe figures in Labour\u2019s fiscal plan appear to use the Government\u2019s published fiscal impacts without reversing the signs to account for Labour undoing those changes. Between 2026\/27 and 2030\/31, Labour records a $44.8 million saving. Reversing the Government\u2019s policy would instead produce a $44.8 million cost, overstating Labour\u2019s fiscal position by $89.6 million over the forecast period,\u201d Ross said. <\/p>\n
\u201cLabour seems to have taken the Government\u2019s own numbers and forgotten to reverse the signs when undoing their policy, turning a $44.8 million cost into a $44.8 million saving,\u201d Ross said. <\/p>\n
A Labour spokesperson admitted: \u201cThe Taxpayers\u2019 Union has identified an error in our Fiscal Plan relating to the Income Related Rent Subsidy and Accommodation Supplement\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cA cost was incorrectly recorded as a saving, and a saving recorded as a cost. We\u2019ve checked it and will correct our Fiscal Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a straightforward and small correction, and does not change the fact that we are fully able to pay for our commitments,\u201d they said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government earlier this year increased the accommodation supplement for people in private rentals, but at the same…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,88359,5811,74,25904,5903,37078,3597,6721,1362,28166,111,43,139,69,4762,2170,117812,30503,10041,35028,61,4483],"class_list":["post-622096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-90m","tag-admitted","tag-after","tag-correct","tag-election","tag-fiscal","tag-fix","tag-labour","tag-made","tag-mistake","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-party","tag-plan","tag-promised","tag-promises","tag-spots","tag-taxpayers","tag-to","tag-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622096","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=622096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}