Budget Day Basics
Phoebe Eden-Mann, National Policy Analyst
Why does the Budget matter?
The Budget is what sets out the Government’s plan for the financial year ahead, as well as their estimates for the next few years. It tells us what the Government is prioritising policy and spending wise.
Budget Day is on Thursday 18 May 2023, and the documents are usually available from around lunchtime. They will be found on the Budget website which will be updated on the day with the 2023/24 budget documents.
There are several documents that are released on the day. These most important for everyday Kiwis are:
Budget at a Glance
Wellbeing Budget
Estimates of Appropriations.
The numbers paint the true picture
The summaries and descriptions in these reports may give you context, but what’s most important are the numbers. For example, in 2020, it was announced that there was an increase in disability funding, which was exciting! But when CCS Disability Action looked at the actual numbers, we discovered that the Government had in fact overspent in 2019, so simply had to allocate more money to make up the deficit.
The numbers will give you the facts without any spin.
To get to the numbers, go to ‘Estimates’, then select ‘By Vote’. The Votes are groupings of appropriations (these are the legal mechanism by which government is allowed to spend money). The Votes are broken down into sectors.
Here are the key areas that are most relevant to disabled people and their families:
Learning Support (found in Education Vote)
Special Needs Intervention (found in Education Vote)
Early Intervention Services (found in Education Vote)
Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (found in Education Vote)
Training Incentive Allowance (found in Education Vote)
Disability Support Services (found in Social Development Vote)
Both Disability Allowances (found in Social Development Vote)
Supported Living Payments (found in Social Development Vote)
Community Participation and Vocational Services (found in Social Development Vote)
Residential-based Support Services (found in Social Development Vote)
Growing Disability and Accessibility Leadership and Advice for Disabled People (found in Social Development Vote)
Supporting Equitable Pay for Care and Support Workers (found in Social Development Vote)
National Disability Support Services (found in Health Vote)
Funding for Whaikaha Ministry for Disabled People (Found in Social Development Vote)
Keep calm, and dive into the figures
When you open the Vote Estimate, the key is don’t panic when confronted with the pages and pages of spreadsheets. It’s not as scary as it first appears.
At the top of each table are the years 2022/23 and 2023/24 (and in some tables there will be more years depending on how far into the future the funding projections are).
This means that the lines under the years 2022/23 are the numbers for the financial year just been, and 2023/24 are the numbers for the year ahead.
The four things you need to know are:
Final Budgeted means that was the final amount that was budgeted for that specific thing in the financial year just been
Estimated Actual means the final amount they actually spent for that specific thing in the financial year just been
Budget means the estimate that they will spend on that specific thing in the financial year ahead
$000 means whatever the number is in the table, add $000 onto the end of it. For the Budget we’re working in the multiple millions of dollars, so if something says “Estimated Actual $000: 7,598” it really means the estimated actual spend was $7,589,000
Sample analysis
Promoting Positive Outcomes for Disabled People
If we look at the Budget information from last year, we see for the year 2020/21, the Government estimates it spent $7.6 million on the Positive Outcomes for Disabled People. The Government had planned to spend $7.6 million. So, the Government spent the same amount that they planned to.
For 2021/22, the Government plans to spend $8.6 million on Positive Outcomes for Disabled People. This is $1 million more than they spent in the previous financial year.
Here is how this information would appear in table form.
|
Final Budgeted 2020/2021 $000 |
Estimated Actual 2020/2021 $000 |
Budget 2021/2022 $000 |
|
$ 7,598.00 |
$ 7,598.00 |
$ 8,599.00 |
And here is how it would appear in graph form.
CCS Disability Action’s analysis
We will be analysing the budget as soon as it’s released. We’ll be looking for trends from the past few years (you can find these on our website) to see if it’s gone up or down (or stayed the same).
I encourage you all to have a look for yourselves come Budget Day or keep an eye on the CCS Disability Action Facebook or LinkedIn page to hear what we and others in the sector think.