Housing pressure hardest on working households not getting a benefit - report

Working households earning less than the full-time minimum wage per adult are under the sharpest housing pressure, a new report by Child Poverty Action Group says.

While official data shows that rents have been flat or falling in many parts of the country researcher Greg Waite said that obscured the experience of many households who were struggling to get by. Rents had risen sharply for many years before the current weakness, he said.

He said of more than 20,000 households that received benefits and were in private rental arrangements, only 12 percent had enough income to cover their rent and living costs for a basic standard of living.

Only 59 percent of single people and 41 percent of single parents had enough income to cover the costs of a "basic standard of living" after paying their rent.

He said more than 70,000 households in private rentals were working but earned less than the full-time minimum wage per adult, and the majority did not receive a benefit. Some of them would have casual work, he said, or wanted more hours and could not get them. Two-thirds of that group would not be able to afford rent, he calculated.

"You hear so much about people coming to food banks who are working now … single people, single parents, people who can't have two incomes, they're structurally disadvantaged in the housing market."

Waite said he also looked at the availability of affordable housing.

He said in 2015, 38 percent of housing stock was affordable to people receiving only a benefit, which dropped to 23 percent in 2024. The drop was from 55 percent to 38 percent for low income people. The sharpest drops in affordable supply were in more rural areas like Manawatu-Whanganui and Bay of Plenty.

"Housing is the largest cost facing families."

He said between 2023 and 2026 rents had increased by the largest amount of any household expense, followed by food and transport. He estimated rents had typcially increased $50 a week for a working couple with two children in the main centres, while food was $34 more expensive and transport $22.

"You can't not pay the rent. So as you know, it's people not buying food and not having all the other things that make up a balanced life."

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