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ALDEN WILLIAMS / THINGS
The stress people felt about top benefits had lessened during the pandemic, but new recipients of Covid-19 Income Relief payments of $ 490 per week felt stressed and stigmatized.
People who lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic felt shame despite not being to blame for becoming unemployed, according to a survey by the University of Auckland on the adequacy of social welfare.
The survey was a collaboration between the university, First Union, and advocacy groups Child Poverty Action Group and Auckland Action Against Poverty.
It was designed to assess the impact on families of the two-tier benefits system created during the pandemic in which people who lost their jobs in recent months receive higher social assistance payments than those who were unemployed before Covid- 19 hit the country.
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“> get the Covid-19 income relief payment of $ 490 per week, while those of the top benefit recipients saw their payments lifted by just $ 25 a week after the pandemicsaid Louise Humpage, an associate professor at the University of Auckland, who is conducting the survey.
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People who received Covid-19 Income Relief Payment fared better financially than other top beneficiaries, Humpage said, and fewer said they had no needs like eating properly or going to the doctor.
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“Our early findings suggest that the $ 25-per-week increase the government made to top benefits in its Covid-19 package is making little or no difference to low-income households,” says Associate Professor Louise Humpage, a sociologist. from the University of Auckland.
But despite that, they were experiencing very different emotions.
During the shutdown, and the period that will soon end at Alert Level 3 in Auckland, people with top benefits felt a decrease in stress, both as a result of receiving more money, including winter energy payments, and a decreased pressure to find work at Work and Income, Humpage said.
But, he said: “People who received the Covid-19 Income Relief Payment said they felt more financial concerns and were quite aware of the stigma and shame.
“He tells us about the experience of unemployment in New Zealand. We tend to categorize the unemployed as people who do not meet society’s expectations, “he said.
People receiving the Covid-19 income relief payment had already experienced one drop in income and were soon faced with another.
“In September, the three-month Income Relief Payment ends and these people will be transferred to a main benefit if they haven’t found work,” Humpage said.
“This group is already saying that dealing with work and income has increased their ‘mental stress and worry’ and their ‘financial worry.’
“I anticipate that your ability to cover basic costs and your stress will worsen,”
Both groups were able to receive additional payments, but the recipients of the Covid-19 Income Relief payments were not resource tested on their partners’ income, Humpage said.
Both groups could access other forms of financial assistance such as the Accommodation Supplement, he said.
Humpage said the emerging picture the survey was painting was insufficient earnings even after the $ 25 hike.
“Our early findings suggest that the $ 25 per week increase the government made to the top benefits in its Covid-19 package is making little or no difference to low-income households,” he said.
When asked which sum would best meet their particular needs, Humpage said he expected people to opt for a sum that is close to minimum wage or living wage.
“Almost everyone has chosen the $ 490 Covid-19 payment, which suggests that people are not greedy. They say it’s more like the figure we need to cover their basic costs, ”Humbold said.
Just over 220 people completed the survey, but that included just 15 people who received income relief payments from Covid-19.
Humbold asked more Coivid-19 Income recipients to complete the survey on the Child Action Poverty Group website. The group is a registered charity that aims to eliminate child poverty in New Zealand through research, education and advocacy.
Auckland Action Against Poverty defines itself as a “direct action, advocacy and education group mobilizing against the neoliberal agenda on employment, welfare and poverty”.
