“But if you don’t show up at the supermarket, no one really cares except for your kids that need food on the table.” – Ana Ika, Salvation Army
The impact that the high cost of fuel is having is just the latest in a cost-of-living story that has low income working families struggling to make ends meet, says Salvation Army social policy analyst Ana Ika.
Many families are struggling to pay the rent or mortgage on top of petrol, power and putting food on the table.
“It’s not an unemployment story, it’s not a beneficiary story,” Ika says.
“It’s very much those that are on low incomes, those that are in working households, sometimes double-income working households; because of that squeeze from all directions, they also are finding it really difficult to be able to meet the cost of living.”
One shopper at the Mangere town centre said things were tough all around.
“It’s very expensive and sometimes we go without just to make ends meet until the next week. Sometimes, essentials like, not paying power just to, you know, make everything else last.
“Negotiating with my finance companies. My other bills that I have just to make. Yeah. To feed my family.”
Ana Ika says the rising cost of putting food on the table is leading to food insecurity.
“Food insecurity is when a family is unable to put food on the table, like, that’s basically, what it means,” she says.
“You can’t put food in the fridge. You aren’t able to make a full meal and so, that would be what we would regard as insecure food in the household.”
“It’s so expensive. You know, it’s hard,” says another shopper at the Mangere Town Centre.
For many low-income families it’s either a warm home with an empty fridge or vice versa, Ika says.
“I guess the result of that, that we’re seeing in the Salvation Army is that, food is the only thing to go out because, if you don’t pay for rent, like, you can get evicted. If you don’t pay for your utilities bill, you can get the power cut.
“But if you don’t show up at the supermarket, no one really cares except for your kids that need food on the table.”
In Manukau the Salvation Army has a food bank to help those families in need and they also office help with utilities, especially the power bill.
“Utility bills are really high and so in certain situations we try and work with our financial mentors and they’re trying to work with power companies to be able to see if, you know, if there’s any grace there for those that we support, when they’re in arrears with their power.
“I guess the biggest issue with our Pacific families is we don’t reach out, early enough. We wait till we’re in a crisis situation before we ask for help and sometimes it’s often too late.” Ika says.
With the election looming in November the Salvation Army is asking whoever is in power to switch it up to help low-income families.
“We’re looking at solutions that can give our Pacific families some breathing space.”
