ANALYSIS: The Government announced a cost of living payment in Budget 2022 to help those facing skyrocketing costs. But will it really do much?
But we should note here that it only lasts for three months – and these people would have been facing the price increases all year. Since that figure is quite a lot more volatile, we can use the 3.9% increase, which is a more steady look at overall bond data. Stats NZ thinks it’s more likely they would have seen a pay increase of something like 3%. First up – the payment is individualised, which means our household will get a total of $700, or $54 a week. (We should note this inflation dropped a tad in April, if we were talking about March to March it would be a $15.60 bump.) And that’s not even counting people who do most of their transport without a car. The higher figure comes from a volatile index they keep which looks at new tenancies being signed, but only focuses on that month. Stats NZ says rentals have gone up between 3.9% and 6.9% in the year to April 2022. Let’s assume this hypothetical family spent $205 a week on food a year ago. And we’ll compare the payment with how much their costs have gone up in the past year. Stuff has looked at exactly what it might do for a household on the average wage. We’ll look at both their price hikes assuming they rent and then assuming they have a mortgage.