❄️Winter Energy Payment ❄️

The Winter Energy Payment is an extra payment to help with the cost of heating your home over the winter months. You must be getting a main benefit, pension or Jobseeker Support Student. Most students do not qualify for this support.

VUWSA is once again calling for the Winter Energy Payment to be extended to tertiary students.

The Winter Energy Payment is designed to help those struggling with rising living costs to keep their homes warm and dry during the coldest months in Aotearoa. Yet, tertiary students remain ineligible for this vital support — despite often living in some of the coldest, dampest, and poorest housing, and surviving on deeply strained incomes. Access to the Winter Energy Payment would ease the impossible choice students currently face; a warm home or affording the necessities. 

According to the People’s Inquiry into Student Wellbeing, two-thirds of students regularly go without enough money for basic necessities like food, clothing, power bills, and healthcare. Meanwhile, annual electricity prices have climbed by $120 since April 2024, and Aotearoa’s four largest energy companies reported a staggering $2.7 billion in combined profits last year. 

In 2024, nearly 1,000 students applied for Victoria University’s Winter Energy Grant, with the most common concerns listed being financial hardship and cold accommodation. 

Te Aka Tauira is calling on all students, whānau, and supporters to sign the petition and support the push to end student poverty and energy hardship.