14 July 2005

Budgeting service needs more funding now: Bradford

The threatened closure of a key South Auckland budgeting advisory service is bad news for its community and the Government should step in and help keep it open, Green Party Social Services Spokesperson Sue Bradford says.

The Mangere Budgeting Services Trust, which provides help to beneficiary, low-income and debt-ridden families across South Auckland, said yesterday that without more help from the Ministry of Social Development and / or local businesses it will be forced to close its doors.

"It may seem ironic that a budgeting service needs more money," Ms Bradford says.

"But by definition, budgeting advisors know how to cut the cloth, so we can be sure that the problems that they are facing are simply being caused by insufficient resources.

"With thousands of families in South Auckland still living in poverty and benefits and wages still being too low for survival for many, groups like the Mangere Budgeting Services Trust are critical. It is imperative that the Government supports services like this, rather than leaving them to wither and die.

"The Ministry of Social Development should step in immediately with not just emergency funding, but ongoing infrastructure support.

"While it is great that unemployment has dropped in South Auckland, huge problems with entrenched poverty, debt, gambling and housing costs remain. Groups like Mangere Budgeting Services Trust will continue to be needed even while the statistics are heading in the right direction, so should not be neglected," Ms Bradford says.

ENDS

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