Higher student housing benefit 'may pay for bus fares'

Unitec Student Council president Matalena O'Mara (left) and student council member Rosie Stanton run a foodbank for students - an extra $20 a week will help. Photo / Dean Purcell

Tertiary students say a $20-a-week increase in accommodation benefits will help students pay for bus fares to their classes.

"It will help, yes, but I don't think in relation to the reality of what students are going through, no," said Auckland's Unitec student president Matalena O'Mara. One in six students at Unitec say they "regularly go without food or other necessities because I can't afford them".

"When I was talking about having to choose between catching a bus to school or having some food, it might mean someone can actually catch a bus now rather than walk an hour to get to school."

The Budget will increase the accommodation benefit for those receiving student allowances in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch from $40 a week to $60 from April 1 next year.

It is the first increase in Auckland since 2003.

In those 14 years, the median rent in Auckland has increased just over $200 a week, from $327 to $531.

The accommodation benefit is based on the average rent per room. Assuming an average of three bedrooms for each house, the rent per room has risen from about $109 to about $177.

Students pay the first $40 of rent, and the Government pays half of the rest of the average - now about $68.50 a week in Auckland. That will be reduced to the new policy cap of $60.

In Wellington the formula would pay a subsidy of about $66, also reduced to the $60 cap.

In Christchurch, the formula indicates that the subsidy may actually be only about $43 a week, but the Government appears to have decided to pay a flat $60 as in Auckland and Wellington.

The new subsidy rates are $58.50 in Tauranga, $51 in Dunedin, $49.50 in Hamilton, and mostly lower rates depending on rents in other cities.

National student president Jonathan Gee said only a third of students received the student allowance, which is required to get the accommodation subsidy, because the parental income threshold has been frozen for the past five years.

"More than three quarters of students will see no change to their living situation as a result of this Budget," he said.