Vulnerability Report highlights increasing needs

MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 9 July 2009

Second Vulnerability Report highlights increasing needs

“This second Vulnerability Report makes a sobering read. Our agencies are telling us that people are queuing up for food parcels at 7.30am in the morning and mothers with babies and young children are in their offices in tears because they don’t know how they are going to pay their power bill”, says Trevor McGlinchey the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS) Executive Officer.

 “The Vulnerability Report is unique in that it collects together in one place the data from a range of government departments such as the Ministry of Social Development and the Department of Labour and then provides the human face behind the statistics.” says Anne Kelly, the NZCCSS Policy Advisor responsible for developing the Vulnerability Report. 

The report shows that some NZCCSS member agencies are reporting unprecedented numbers of people approaching them for help and are struggling to cope with the additional volumes.  Strategies to manage include introducing waiting lists and reducing client contact time.  Some larger agencies are also receiving more referrals from other smaller community organisations that no longer have any capacity to absorb new work. 

“It will be interesting to see the impacts of the additional government funding made available to social services through the Community Response Fund, hopefully this funding will help to ease some of this pressure” said Trevor McGlinchey. “None of this money has reached communities yet as the first round of funding has only recently been announced. We will be watching closely and if necessary making recommendations for change to ensure the best results are achieved”.

Through the regular release of these Vulnerability Reports NZCCSS wants to highlight not only the current effects of the recession on New Zealand families, but also focus on some of the long term inequities that have contributed to poverty and social injustice within our society. Vulnerability Reports will only be published on-line with printable versions downloadable from the www.justiceandcompassion.org.nz website.

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