Rate hikes hit elderly hard

According to Statistics New Zealand, superannuitants have been hit the hardest by rates rises.

“Superannuitants faced the highest inflation in the September 2018 quarter (up 1.2 percent), largely driven by a 5.6 percent rise in local authority rates,” Stats NZ said.

Superannuitant and Hamilton ratepayer Irene Strangwick agreed saying, “There will be a lot of people I would think that will be rated off their land. They just won’t have the money to pay the increased rates.”

Strangwick and her neighbour Kitty van der Drift live in the Netherville Retirement Village in Flagstaff. The complex grounds are owned by the village but each house is individually owned and rated.

The women said the average rate increase for their community in the first year would be 31%.

“It’s an extra $500 we’ve got to find,” van der Drift said.

“You have a budget but that budget’s getting tighter and tighter. There’s not a lot of leeway in it.”

The women said the hardest part was the psychological strain on superannuitants.

“They’re retired. Where do you get any extra money from?” Strangwick asked.

She said the village had several widows who lived on one pension and paid full rates.

“Sure they could get a rebate but that doesn’t compensate for how everything’s going up,” she said.

The increased cost of power and insurance were areas of concern for the superannuitants and Van der Drift said the price of petrol was “shocking.”

She had also seen elderly diets being impacted by inflation.

“There’s quite a few ladies here that have always been on their own that have got thinner,” van der Drift said.

Strangwick added, “Rates are going up. Something’s got to give. That might be their social life or their food.”

She identified the proposed Waikato theatre as an unnecessary expense and said council was spending outside its budget.

“We can’t spend outside our budget. If we don’t pay our rates they’ll [debt collectors] sell us up,” she said.

Van der Drift would like to see superannuitants staying longer in their own houses if they can rather than having to go “somewhere where they won’t be happy”.

“I think having your own home is security,” Strangwick added.

“There’s nothing nicer than having your own patch where you can scratch in your garden and do what you want to do and it’s home.”

Van der Drift found the rating hike on elderly to be unfair.

She said that she and her peers had worked hard, gone without, and saved to own their homes.

“We’re proud of what we’ve got,” she said.

“The first 10 years of my marriage we never went anywhere. We just worked, worked, worked.

“Then to turn around and have the council come along and lift the rates so high that you think why the hell did I do that all for? To have someone come along and take it off you that’s hard. That’s awfully hard.”