Watch NZH Local Focus: No budget for Wairoa Budget Advisory Service

The Wairoa Budget Advisory Service in Wairoa was formed in a time of crisis - just after Cyclone Bola washed out the Wairoa Bridge - cutting off half the town.

28 years on, it is still the place where many turn, in their own times of financial crisis.

Manager, Ngaio says the advisors have skills in crisis interventions, complex debt, which she says is a concern in small communities, as well as insolvencies.

They also help with numeracy and literacy.

But - the future of the vital service hangs in the balance.

It's now struggling to keep out of the red itself - after the Ministry of Social Development decided to pull its funding last October.

Budget advisor Stephenie says: "I couldn't believe that after so long, with all the people that have been able to be helped in Wairoa...even the generations that we've been through, that they would just decide that we are going to try this new way, what happened to what's not broke don't fix?"

The Ministry has allocated the funding to a new provider - Birthright Hawke's Bay - which will deliver a new programme - Building Financial Capability.

It says it can service considerably more clients.

But new clients are turning up to the Budget Advisory for help every week.

They remained open through the toughest time of year - Christmas and the return to school.

"You have a passion to help people, and the ability and the training to do it," Stephenie says.

Last year, it cleared almost $1.8 million debt.

Mayor Craig Little says he contacted Ministry of Social Development and urged them to reverse the decision.

"These guys are grassroots, they know what people are about, they know whether people are genuine, they know whether people are suffering."

Local Labour MP Stuart Nash says Budgeting services do not cost much to run, but they add "significant value to communities".

But the Ministry of Social Development says the funding does target the most vulnerable.

It says it uses population data - including information about household incomes - to make sure it is putting resources into the right places.

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