Poverty action groups say more financial support is needed from the Government to help those disadvantaged by lockdown.
Both Child Poverty Action Group and Auckland Action Against Poverty say this nationwide lockdown is financially tougher than the last.
AAAP's Brooke Stanley told Breakfast Covid-19 exposes inequities already in the system, making it "a billion times worse".
She said people were running out of food and weighing up what bills to pay in order to get through.
"It’s easy to lockdown when you have everything you need and I think for many of us in New Zealand we don’t see or understand the impacts or effects on other households," Stanley said.
"It’s not like this for everyone across the country. It’s not the same."
CPAG's Janet McAllister said there was more support in place for the disadvantaged last year, as there was an increase in the winter energy payment, it was "easier" to access food grants and there was a "higher trust model" for the wage subsidy.
However, she said she wanted to see the planned benefit increase for April 2022 brought forward.
"... It [lockdown] has hit our most disadvantaged families the hardest, so therefore [the Government] needs to increase income support immediately, it needs to bring forward those promised benefit increases," McAllister said.
"You can’t live on promises. It needs to bring those promised increases forward now. It’s the right thing to do ..."
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni told the Social Services and Community Committee on Wednesday "at this stage no" to questions around bringing the April benefit increase forward.
She also said the country was five weeks out from winter energy payment ending.
Sepuloni told Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March: "There's lots of things that go through our minds, Ricardo, and we discuss a raft of things.
"But I'm not going to preempt any changes that could potentially be made, because it's really a 'watch this space' at the moment, and certainly no decisions have been made on either of the things just talked about."
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