Hawke's Bay workers struggling to pay their bills | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

An increasing number of wage earners are struggling to make ends meet, causing the number of people approaching budget advisory services to reach record highs in Hawke's Bay.

The Napier Family Centre saw 708 new clients seeking household budget advice in the past 12 months, who on averaged owed $37,000 in debt.

Centre chief executive Roydon Day said figures were a 20 per cent jump on the previous year, and not just beneficiaries were seeking help.

Mr Day said that clients spanned "both ends of the spectrum", with most of them in their early 30s and with, on average, two children.

He said the 708 clients was a record. "Since the recession, it's just mushroomed. I've been here for four years and in the time before that we had about 300 clients. It was always quite static."

Kath Curran, from Napier Family Centre, knew of one family of seven, with two working parents, who struggled to buy essentials even with Working For Families assistance. "Their budget is still so tight after rent, power, fuel, and school costs that they cannot afford when things go wrong like car payments, or if anything breaks down."

The weekly grocery shop was sacrificed and any doctors' visits were put on hold to cover loan payments, Ms Curran said.

Hastings Budget Advisory Service co-ordinator Greta Wham also noticed a "big" increase of clients in the past year. The service had 571 new clients for the last 12 months, up from 444 on the previous year, who had a combined debt of $10 million.

The Central Hawke's Bay Budget Advisory Service had seen a 30 per cent jump of new clients for the same period. CHB Budget Advisory Service co-ordinator Carmel Thompson said the situation was exacerbated by the closure of Ovation meat works in Waipukurau last month and a number of smaller firms laying off staff.

Mr Day said Hawke's Bay was particularly vulnerable to the after-effects of the recession as the region "got hit quite hard" and its comparatively low-earning workforce meant it took longer to bounce back than other regions.

Mrs Wham said people more often approached the service centre when they were already in arrears. By then they felt "very frightened, very worried", which could begin to strain relationships or impact on the family's health, she said.

Labour MP for Napier Stuart Nash said an increasing number of working people who were struggling financially visited his office in search of help.

He said recent tax cuts had not kept up with the rising cost of power, petrol and food, while last year's increase to GST had further bumped up household expenditures.

"Normally if you had a job you would be okay. What we're seeing now is a new group of people who are actually working, but can't make ends meet. The price of necessities has gone up and we've got people having to now make choices [between things] that should be absolutely necessary. If they drive to work and it costs $100 to fill their car, it takes a huge amount out of their pay packet," he said.

He was contacted recently by a mother-of-three who was "at her wit's end" worrying how her family would survive the winter after losing her job. "She just can't put food on the table. She doesn't think she's being a good mother so she's beating herself up."