You'll find a range of information below about welfare support available for our Porirua community. This page will be updated as information becomes available.
- Download the Office Ministry of Health COVID-19 Welfare Fact Sheet
- For information on Council closures and facilities, please click here.
As we work through this together, there are people and agencies able to support you. Here’s a range of advice, help, or support if you need it. If you don’t speak English, you can ask for an interpreter when calling most government departments.
- Au turanga anoano‘ia no te iti tangata e te turu‘anga - Cook Islands Maori
- Services and support - English
- Veiqaravi kei na veivuke - Fijian
- Buoka aika a bongana - Kiribati
- Tau puhala lagomatai - Niuean
- Hḁiasoag fak garue - Rotuman
- Auaunaga ma fesoasoani - Samoan
- Tautūaga ma nā fehoahoaniga - Tokelauan
- Ngaahi sēvesí mo e tokoní - Tongan
- Matagaluega mo fesoasoani - Tuvaluan
Porirua - Helpline: 0800 141 967
If you don't have the essentials* you need to get through the lockdown, in the first instance please try calling a:
👉 neighbour👉 family member who lives nearby
👉 friend who lives nearby
👉 you could also check the availability for shopping online.
*Essential goods include: water, food and grocery items, clothing, bedding and blankets, cooking and eating utensils, fuel for cooking and heating, medication and cleaning and sanitary products. Find out more here
If these options are not available to you, and you need urgent and immediate help, then please call our Council welfare support helpline on 0800 141 967, 7 days a week, 9am to 5pm (outside those hours you can request a call-back).
Request a callback - if you would like someone to call you back about getting your essential household supplies, please click here to complete a callback form.
Someone from our Council team will call you back to see how they can best help you.
Useful Numbers
👉 Government Agencies: www.covid19.govt.nz or call the free government helpline on 0800 779 997 (8am to 10pm, seven days a week).
covid19.govt.nz website has everything you need to know about COVID-19 in one place. Learn the simple steps you can take to unite against the virus and slow its spread.
👉 Pacific translations are available in:
• Cook Islands Maori
• Fijian
• Niuean
• Samoan
• Tokelauan
• Tongan
• Tuvaluan
St Vincents de Paul Foodbank
- The shop at 18 Mungavin Avenue is closed until further notice.
- Urgent only requests for food parcels can be directed via "send message" on the facebook page facebook.com/StVincentdePaulPorirua
- Or by leaving a message (04) 237 5968 for residents between Tawa and Otaki.
Our normal delivery days will apply:
- Tuesday-Friday for Porirua East-Pukerua Bay
- Friday for Tawa through to Titahi Bay.
Donations can also be made through our National Office website www.svdp.org.nz.
Please do NOT leave donations of any kind outside the shop during this time.
Salvation Army Porirua – Foodbank
👉For Foodbank assistance please call (04) 235 6266
St Anne's Pantry- operated through CAB
Due to the Covid-19 virus our walk-in service has closed
- The St Anne's Pantry Food Bank is accessed only through Citizens Advice Bureau Porirua. The pantry delivers parcels of food to people in need who are not able to access a food grant from Work & Income, or in emergencies. Each parcel is an emergency parcel.
- Clients must be home between 2.30pm and 5.30pm to receive the parcel
Wesley Community Action – Foodbank and other Support
- The community Pantry (the food bank) is operating.
- Packing and delivering is done on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- If you require a food parcel, please phone (04) 237 7923
- The regular fruit and vege co-op run is not operating, however they have partnered with ‘Food Together’ who do fresh fruit and veggies delivered to your door from local growers.
👉 You can order online here: www.foodtogether.co.nz/
They also have a team who provide support for people in financial stress (our Good Cents team) who are operating on phone and social media only at this stage. They are happy to talk with anyone who is feeling stressed about money and needs some support to work out what to do with their finances.
Nikolien Van Wijk nvanwijk@wesleyca.org.nz
Ashleigh Crawshaw acrawshaw@wesleyca.org.nz
Or find them on Facebook and message them at Good Cents Wesley.
Chorus ready to support students in households without broadband
To support the education needs of students as New Zealand works through the Covid-19 epidemic, Chorus has offered to provide internet service providers with a free wholesale broadband service to support up to 50,000 homes currently without connectivity.
Skinny Jump - Subsidised broadband for Kiwi homes.
Skinny Jump (a division of Spark) is flexible prepaid broadband: $5 for 30GB of data, no contracts or credit checks, and the modem comes free of charge. Just top up as you go.
You can then renew the plan five times every month and can get up to a maximum of 150GB every month (it will cost you $25).
Skinny Jump is a not-for-profit service and we don’t use your information to promote or sell other products.
If one or more of the following sounds like you, then you could be eligible:
- Families with children
- Job seekers
- Seniors
- People with disabilities
- Refugees and migrant communities
- Those in social housing
👉 If you qualify complete this form
(Providers or organisations can do this on behalf of whanau).
Grants allocated from the fund will be one-off with priority being given to requests that support Maori, Pacific, older people, people with disabilities, people with current significant health considerations, migrant communities and people who are isolated in rural areas.
We need to take extra care of our elderly and provide them with support. Check in with them via phone or through social media if possible and if they need anything, remember to do it from a safe distance
The lack of modern technology may be an obstacle for our elderly living alone during the emergency self-isolation period to combat Covid-19.
Arise church support for elderly
Elderly members of our community are invited to call 0800 WITHLOVE for support with everything from managing online shopping to having someone to chat to.
Work and Income is currently:
- deferring the need to provide subsequent medical certificates for clients already getting Jobseeker Support, Sole Parent Support, Supported Living Payment and Child Disability Allowance.
- deferring any Disability Allowance reviews
- delaying Annual Reviews (including all annual reviews of income, confirming your circumstances (CYC) and annual circumstances letters (ACL), social housing reviews, and life certificates)
- clearing any Special Benefit expiries or reviews
- deferring any new obligations failures
- clearing any 52-week reapplications for clients getting Jobseeker Support or Sole Parent Support
- extending the period that Temporary Additional Support is granted for.
We’re working through transitional arrangements for any clients whose payments are affected by any of these changes/reviews.
We’re also working on other ways to make things easier for our clients and we’ll update you as soon as we can.
If you have been affected by COVID-19, they may be able to provide financial support. You may be self-isolating at home, or your work may be affected:
The Government has put together a COVID-19 Wage Subsidy for employers in all regions.
It’s to support your business if you are impacted by COVID and face laying off staff or reducing their hours because of COVID-19.
If experiencing domestic abuse or concerned about someone you know, 👉 Call Shine’s Helpline on 0508-744-633 now. You can call as many times as you need, for as long as you need to.
Who can get help from Shine’s Helpline?
Shine wants to make sure that anyone being physically or emotionally abused by a partner or family member in New Zealand has someone to talk to and can get information and professional advice – anyone who is worried about their own situation or who is worried about a friend, family member, child or anyone they know who might be living with domestic abuse.
If you are experiencing violence, we are here to support and help you whether you are a man or a woman, straight, transgender, young or old, no matter your ethnicity, culture or personal situation.
Men or women who have been violent or abusive towards their partners or family members and want to make a change can also ring our Helpline to get support, information and referrals.
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired, you can ring Shine's free national Helpline (0508-744-633) using the NZ Relay service. Helpline operators are trained to take calls from the NZ Relay service.
Our Helpline has access to an interpreting service, so if you have limited English, please let the Helpline worker know what language you speak when you ring and we'll see if we can access an interpreter for you.
Help support the victims of family violence
You can help the victims of family violence by booking a room for someone in need.
Go to Www.safenight.nz
The impacts of the pandemic on families and communities do not cause violence, but it can mean abusers have more opportunities to perpetrate and conceal violence. Abusive people might withhold essential items from victims, scare tactics about the virus, or prevent them from seeking help
Pacific families who need to access a Covid 19 Package of Support, please call one of your local Whānau Ora Covid 19 Support Partners.
This assistance is available for all Pacific families. The providers will assess your needs and help you figure out your next steps.
