Working families under increasing pressure
The Auckland City Mission echoes the concerns raised by the heads of both Blenheim’s High Schools, Karen Stewart of
Marlborough Girls College and deputy Principal Michael Heath of Marlborough Boys College, on National Radio’s Nine to
Noon programme on Monday 11th Spetember, that there are increasing numbers of families with working parents whose
incomes are not sufficient to meet the most basic need of feeding their children.
Both schools are addressing what is an increasing number of students coming to school without sufficient food for the
day with breakfast and/or lunch programmes and food parcels, and Michael Heath noted that it is the children of those
employed in seasonal or contract jobs and those working for minimum wage that are coming to school hungry in increasing
numbers. He also noted that parents working long or multiple shifts in order to make ends meet is having an impact on
children coming to school adequately resourced to learn. Both principals commented that it is in these working families
that they are seeing the most growth in need, and that their schools are increasingly required to take on a greater
social welfare role.
Findings from the City Mission’s Family 100 Research Project, which followed 100 Auckland families living in long-term
hardship over the course of a year, echo these concerns. Families accounts show that for many families employed under
conditions that leave them vulnerable to sudden drops in income, or those employed on salaries close to the minimum
wage, covering the most basic of day-to-day expenses, including school lunches, uniforms and required trips, was
frequently unmanageable. Families participating in the Project spoke of being required to go without or take on
crippling debt in order to get by, frequently despite having at least on parent working fulltime.
Diane Robertson, City Missioner comments “Workplace agreements that do not assure people of regular income can lead to
situations where hours drop suddenly, leaving people without sufficient money to cover their expenses, while levels of
income for those on benefits and working for minimum wage are so low that families are seeking charity in increasing
numbers – we are having increasing numbers of families coming to us for assistance where parents are employed”.
ends