Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced a relief package where almost 150,000 families would get an extra $50 per week through a boost to the in-work tax credit, which is part of the Working for Families scheme.
The payment would come into effect from April 7 and is targeted towards
low-to-middle-income workers who have children — it excludes beneficiaries, superannuitants and those without children.
Solo mother of three Nicole Chappell, of Dunedin, said she saw the government’s offer and "just laughed".
"They basically said ‘oh damn, we have to do something, let’s just chuck them $50’ ... like we’re a bunch of beggars on the street."
She said $50 a week was not going to go far.
But, if high petrol prices continued, Ms Chappell believed it would have knock-on effects in every part of life.
She said farms harvesting produce, line-haul trucks transporting farm goods, ships delivering imported food, and supermarkets moving food around the country all relied on diesel and petrol, and she worried the increased costs would be passed on to the consumer if the current fuel crisis continued.
"Machinery, crops, milking ... it affects everyone, the roll-on hasn’t even truly begun."
Two weeks ago, Ms Chappell bought $100 of petrol, using Afterpay, filling about three-quarters of her tank.
Last Saturday, she filled up again and this time she paid $150 for the same amount of petrol.
"That $50 isn’t going to go far at all."
For Mrs Chappell, she was trying to use her car less, but did not want her children to go without weekly sports and activities.
In the current tax year, the cut-off for receiving the tax credit was about $89,000 of annual household income for a family with one child, $112,000 for a family with two children and $135,000 for a family with three children.
About 143,000 households will start seeing the extra payment in their bank accounts from April 7, if they are paid weekly, or April 14, if paid fortnightly.
A further 14,000 households will receive the support, but at a lesser rate.
