Budget 2025: What do disabled people think of this year’s budget?

Last week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced the details for this year’s Budget - from halving the Government’s KiwiSaver contribution to stopping all existing pay equity claims to fund new incentives for businesses, the Budget covers a lot. And as we know, disabled people are affected by every decision about how the Government spends its money.

It’s been great to see many leaders in our communities offer their takes on the impacts of this year’s Budget over the past week, including folks from Disabled Peoples Organisations, service providers and Te Kāhui Tika Tangta - the NZ Human Rights Commission. We’ve shared some of their perspectives and insights below.

Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker

Te Kāhui Tika Tangata said any investment into people and communities that “ensures we can all live lives of dignity, free from harm and injustice” was important. 

Prudence Walker, the disability rights commissioner, welcomed the $646 million for student learning support. According to education minister Erica Stanford, this investment would provide funding for more than an additional two million teacher aide hours per year by 2028 and extend the Early Intervention Service so year one students could access a range of supports such as speech language therapists and psychologists. 

Walker said education was a critical foundation for life and disabled learners had the right to support allowing them to learn and play among their peers. 

“We welcome some uplift in funds although meeting the cost pressure of existing learning support services will not address longstanding underinvestment and provide the genuine increase in services needed,” says Walker.  

However, Walker was concerned that the primary focus of disability support services funding was for residential care.

“We need to be working towards much more flexible and comprehensive supports for people to be in and feel a sense of belonging in their communities. Where it’s the preference of disabled people, we need to value and support whānau who provide those supports.”

President of the Disabled Persons Assembly Kera Sherwood-O'Regan

Kera Sherwood-O'Regan said the 2025 Budget was “continuing to leave disabled people behind”.

"It’s really demolishing the foundations while plastering over the cracks here and there.”

She said one of the best investments that the government could have made would have been to fund the pay equity claims, however the pay equity cuts took $12.8b dollars out of the pockets of low-income, hard-working women, and those include disabled women.

"We know that disabled people benefit when the people who are supporting us are paid fairly and we also know that disabled women who work in these sectors also benefit when they are paid fairly. So ultimately, the pay equity issue is a really massive issue for disabled people,” she said. 

On the issue of teenage beneficiaries, Sherwood-O'Regan said she was “appalled” at the means testing of 18 and 19-year-olds access to WINZ. “This is a really major disability and equity issue, particularly for disabled and queer youth who are more at risk of abuse. They really should not be forced into that economic dependency on their parents, so it’s very disappointing to see that come through in this budget as well.”

IHC

IHC’s inclusive education lead Trish Grant said the additional $646 million for student learning support was a “serious investment to help fix a broken system”. 

"IHC responds to many calls from families and whānau who have problems accessing the right support for their children when they transition to school. It is a real pressure point for them."

Grant said the $266 million to extend the early intervention service was “a welcome relief to disabled students, their families and schools” as it gives them confidence of stable resourcing in that critical first year. 

"Wrap around, early and sustained support has been a long time coming. It will not only benefit children, families, whānau and schools now - it will also result in savings further down the track." 

She said IHC also welcomes further funding to ensure that all year one to eight schools could have access to a learning support coordinator. "Many children with disability have a range of support needs and the coordination of school, community and health supports is critical.”

"We see these Budget announcements as being a great start. However, further investment will be required to most effectively support all disabled learners and their families."

Access Matters Aotearoa Trust

Juliana Carvalho, the project manager for the Access Matters Aotearoa Trust, said we need a Budget that doesn’t just reset the numbers, but of priorities. “One that puts equity before austerity, rights before rhetoric, and people before profit."

However, that was not the case for this Budget, she said. "This year’s Budget was called ‘The Growth Budget’ - but for disabled people in Aotearoa, it’s more like a shrinking lifeline."

She was disappointed in the changes to pay equity and how it will have negative effects towards disabled people. “[There is] no commitment to pay equity for support workers, whose burnout and low wages directly impact disabled people’s ability to live independently.”

Carvalho said the Budget didn’t include the needs of all New Zealanders, especially disabled people.

"Nicola Willis says this Budget will help ‘Kiwis get ahead’. But let’s be honest - only some Kiwis. Disabled people are not even at the starting line. We’re still waiting on a bus we can board, a house we can enter, a job interview we can get into, and the support we’ve been assessed as needing - months or even years ago,” she said.

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