Source: Child Poverty Action Group
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) says new revelations by 1News that the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) declined thousands of applications for food support on the basis that food was “not an essential need” are outrageous.
Data obtained by 1News reporter Thomas Mead show more than 8,000 applications for Special Needs Grants were rejected on that basis. MSD has described the problem as an “administrative error”, saying the wrong option was selected when applications were assessed, while maintaining that this did not mean the underlying decisions were incorrect.
CPAG’s Food Security Dr Kelly Garton told TVNZ’s Breakfast it reveals a deep, structural problem.
“So many New Zealanders across the country are struggling to make ends meet right now.”
More than 318,000 people, nearly 6% of New Zealand’s population, sought food grants from MSD in 2025 alone. On average, each person sought help four times, resulting in around 1.4 million applications. More than 88,000 applications for Special Needs Grants were declined last year, with the number of declined applications increasing from 2023 to 2024 and again into 2025.
“Meanwhile wages haven’t been keeping up, they’ve only been growing by about 2%. And unemployment is up, it’s about 5.6% right now.”
Dr Garton says the scale of need makes the treatment of people seeking emergency food assistance particularly concerning.
She says it’s outrageous that New Zealanders in need of food have been told it’s not an essential need.
“Adequate food is a basic human right.”
While MSD paid more than $130 million in food grants in 2025 and the majority of applications were accepted, the figures show hundreds of thousands of people are turning to the welfare system for help putting food on the table.
She says the impacts on nutrition, health and wellbeing are immediate, especially for children.
“Children who go hungry even once a week score two-to-four years behind their peers in math, science and reading scores, so it’s a real problem in the long run.”
The revelations come as MSD faces questions over other reasons used to decline applications, including claims that applicants did not have an “immediate need” or had “caused or contributed” to their immediate need.
She says newly introduced criteria to reject applications on the grounds someone may have contributed to their circumstances don’t seem fair or objective.
“If anything, the reason that a person might have caused or contributed to their immediate need is frankly insulting, because I think this Government has actually caused and contributed to that need.”
Dr Garton says the criteria leave too much room for subjective judgements about people’s circumstances.
It is the latest in a series of issues surrounding income support at MSD that is being labelled “an administrative error”, including the suspension of main benefits for some recipients, as well as 15,000 elderly people missing out on the Winter Energy Payment.
1News also revealed that MSD officials have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the growing food security crisis to the Minister for Social Development and Child Poverty Reduction, Louise Upston, who also downgraded food insecurity as a child poverty-related indicator.
Dr Garton called on Minister Louise Upston to front up.
“She’s implemented a number of punitive welfare reforms in the past couple of years going against expert advice, so it really comes as no surprise that food insecurity has been increasing, and she should have to front up to this.”
“Clearly the need has increased. The support needs to increase, and food banks are great for emergencies, but it’s not a strategy. We need to be doing better.”