Fuel relief payment reaches less than two-thirds of promised families

Inland Revenue data shows an average of 95,000 families receive the government's fuel relief payment weekly since 1 April, against the 157,000 the government said would benefit when announced in March. A total of 106,120 families have received it at least once. The gap has triggered a dispute between Finance Minister Nicola Willis and RNZ, which obtained the figures. Willis's office attributed the shortfall to the scheme's design rather than uptake failure.