Kiwis on the lowest income are set to have more cash in their back pockets from Friday, with a swathe of income support measures kicking in.
But advocates say given the skyrocketing cost of living, it's not enough.
In Porirua's Cannons Creek, people are doing it tough.
"I speak for my community - we are just living to survive," budget advisor Ruth Nonu said.
She's worked hard to pull herself out of debt through budgeting.
"My son, he's eating me out of house and home - he's a growing lad," she said.
Nonu's benefit is going up on Friday but because Kāinga Ora - or rather, the Government - is her landlord, they'll gobble most of that back up.
Her last benefit increase was $20.
"$18 went towards Kāinga Ora, $2 went to me," she said.
Across the road from where Nonu helps people budget is a kindy where the little ones had bubbles to worry about instead of the cost of living.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern paid a visit to trumpet Friday's benefit boost.
"We all know we're in the middle of a really tough time for families in Aotearoa," she said.
It's not just the benefits getting a bump. Starting on Friday:
- The minimum wage increases to $21.20
- public transport is half price
- the Working for Families tax credit goes up, on average, by $20 a week
- superannuation goes up by $26 per week for a single and $40 for a couple
- all other benefits increase.
"Every single one is taking money off people who work and do stuff and giving it to people who do so to a lesser extent," said ACT leader David Seymour.
Nonu said the increases aren't enough.
"The base rate of benefits is underneath the standard of living," she said.
Ricardo Menendez March, a Green Party MP, said the increases should be much larger.
"We should lean on what research has told us and what communities have told us for quite some years and commit to far bigger increases to benefits."
But Ardern said the Government is meeting recommendations.
"Already we've responded to the Welfare Expert Advisory Group's recommendation to increase main benefit rates and we've done that."
It just keeps getting more expensive to get by.
The latest TradeMe rental data showed the national median rent is up 8.5 percent - or $45 - to a record-breaking $575 per week. That's the largest increase in seven months.
And nationally, the number of rentals dropped 6 percent compared with February last year.
Rents rose 12 percent in Wellington and the most expensive was Porirua, at $700 per week.
"We do need to make sure we keep working on lifting incomes for New Zealanders," Ardern said.
