Public Service Association members will celebrate today’s Budget boosts for beneficiaries and low-paid workers, and the announcement of new programmes to tackle the housing crisis.

The government has committed to raise weekly benefit rates between $32 and $55 per adult, by April 1 2022 reaching or exceeding the recommendations of 2019’s Welfare Expert Advisory Group.

"PSA members choose careers in agencies like the Ministry of Social Development because they want to help people in need. Shamefully low benefit levels caused unnecessary suffering for thirty years, so we’re thrilled the government has today promised to end that dark legacy," says union National Secretary Erin Polaczuk.

"This Budget secures funding to maintain the current levels of public and community services on which New Zealanders rely. Public servants can continue to work with confidence."

The government announced plans to work with the Council of Trade Unions and Business New Zealand to develop a Social Unemployment Insurance scheme, which will for a period of time provide workers who lose their jobs with 80 percent of their previous income.

Significant funding has been allocated to support pay equity, including over $35 million between now and 2022 for "the additional costs of worker hours resulting from the Care and Support Workers (Pay Equity) Settlement Act."

DHB admin and clerical workers will see $18.7 million allocated each year to fund the implementation of their pay equity claim, between now and 2025.

However, health and other core sectors are under strain from a growing population with increasingly acute needs.

The Budget does not allocate enough funding to overcome decades of underinvestment in base services or keep up with inflation.

"We applaud the government’s commitment to uplifting the lowest paid public workers. Settling pay equity claims and guaranteeing secure hours will deliver dignity to those long denied it," says Ms Polaczuk.

"From housing support to climate initiatives, PSA members will be excited to get stuck in and implement these government programmes. Budget policies become possible when public servants make them happen, so we look forward to the government appropriately recognising the value of this work."

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