New Zealand budget 2021: Ardern boosts welfare to fuel Covid-19 recovery

Government claims largest rise in welfare payments in more than a generation' as it seeks to tackle pressing social problems as well as post-pandemic recovery

New Zealand's centre-left government has unveiled what it called the largest boost to welfare payments in more than a generation" as the centrepiece of its budget, and pledged to fuel a Covid-19 recovery by addressing the country's most pressing social problems.

Previous downturns have made inequality worse," said Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, in written remarks to reporters in the hours before the budget was announced. We're taking a different approach."