Budget Day on Thursday coincided with Community Housing Aotearoa's announcement that homelessness in New Zealand has reached its highest ever level. Photo: Getty Images

Times are tight and the government’s books are poor.

Many of us are doing some version of ‘‘tough’’.

For those at the (financial) bottom of the heap - an unemployed person over 25 gets $370 or so a week after tax (single Super is $555, minimum wage is $766 and the median wage is about $1040); there are nearly 170,000 of our children living in hardship, 40% in a household where work is the main source of income - there is precious little in this year’s Budget.

General inflation is still to spike (with food to go even higher). Unemployment too, will rise; despite already record-high rural youth unemployment rates in some places (43% in parts of the Bay of Plenty).…