The Winter Energy Payment is buying less warmth each year – could there be a better long‑term fix? |
As New Zealand enters the colder months of the year, more than a million Kiwis have begun receiving their government-funded top-ups to help pay the power bill.
Since it was introduced in 2018, the Winter Energy Payment has helped pensioners, beneficiaries and others on fixed incomes cover heating costs. It has also seen debate about who should receive it and whether it should be more tightly targeted.
Student associations have proposed extending the payment to tertiary students – something our research has found a clear need for. The group Share My Super has called on wealthier superannuitants to donate their payments to help children in poverty.
But there a larger issue. The pressures the Winter Energy Payment was designed to ease have continued to mount, driven by rising energy prices and a worsening cost-of-living crisis. Having not increased in line with energy prices, it has become less effective than originally intended.
Today, almost one third of New Zealand households experience energy hardship, with serious consequences for health and wellbeing. Cold, damp and mouldy housing alone costs the country more than NZ$38 million each year in hospitalisations.
On top of this now come the knock-on effects of the Iran war for local fuel, power and grocery bills.
As things stand, the Winter Energy Payment will continue to be a band-aid measure that buys less........