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I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Cost of living has hit many families around the country hard. But what about the singles out there? From booking holidays to having a roof over your head, there's often an additional cost of doing life alone. Research shows that for people aged twenty five to forty nine, those who are singles spend fourteen percent more than their coupled counterparts. It's been
dubbed the singles tax. And while it's gaining more traction in the mainstream, lowering costs for the partner lists is not an easy task, simplicity. Chief economist Chamabel Yakub has crunched the numbers on this and he joins us now on the front page. Shamma Belle, it's no surprise that doing life alone is more expensive, but can you tell me exactly how much more it costs to be single?
So for a young person, on average, it costs about seventy dollars more to be single than a coupled up.
Here, that's a week, oh my god. And so what does the bulk of a single person's income go towards.
Well, the biggest difference is actually on rent and utility. So if you think about it, when you're coupling up, you might still have a one two bedroom house, but you're sharing it across two people. But for a single person, you still need that one house and you still need the same amount of electricity and things like that. So it's really around housing and those utilities that we use in the home that affects younger people and single people more.
And some might say, well, only one mouth to feed, but getting one steak versus a pack of two or four is far more expensive. Hey, and I love the thought of cost go, but me as a single person, I'm never going to get through a twenty five kilogram bag of rice, am I.
Man, it's a lot of rise, right, So you're absolutely right. There's no economies of scale, so you know, that's a very economistic term. But essentially, when you've got more people you can afford to buy those bigger bug items sometimes they're cheaper, so you really do have to shop more carefully.
But we don't actually see a massive difference in the cost of food, so on a per person basis, you know, we don't spend a lot more depending on age, But we tend to see a bit of difference when it comes to older people in particular, because older people who are living alone tend to have a lot less income, so they're just poorer unfortunately, and as a result, they have to spend less because they can't afford it.
I saw a survey in the US a few years ago found an unmarried person could pay as much as a million dollars more in their lifetime than their married friends. Would you agree with that.
Look, it's a couple of things, right. The first is around the income that's possible. So when you've got two of you together working towards something, it can mean that you have more income available. So first you maximize your income. And the second is around the kinds of things that you're able to do. You're able to save more money because you've got double income quite often and the housing costs are not so high, so there's more leftover at
the end of the week. And then there's those little things like we talked about, the you know, giant packs of rice or meat or whatever, where you can get those additional incremental savings regularly. So there is a cost of being single. But I think we shouldn't think about only the costs. There are also some benefits to being single.
What are those?
Well, sometimes you might just want a little bit of peace and quiet to be yourself, right and not everybody. For example, if you're not in a committed relationship, you may not want have to have flatmates, right. And so I remember when I lived in Melbourne, I chose to live alone, even there was more expensive, because you know, I had a busy job, I was seeing a lot of people through the day and coming home, I wanted
to have a sanctuary that was my own. So there are things like that that gives you the sense of independence, quiet solitude that can be quite powerful for a lot of people. But there's a cost to it.
Yeah, I have seen surveys and I can't remember which ones exactly, but single people, especially later in life, don't they have better mental health?
Typically we tend to find coupled up older people have better mental health. So people on their own do tend to suffer a little bit more from loneliness, but not always right. It's like anything, you know, if you're cooped up with somebody who's not very nice to you, then it's terrible, but you know this is being single in
that instance is better. But generally speaking, companionship whether through a partnership or with friends and family that's close to you, even if it's not in the same home, can make a big difference. And loneliness, of course, is one of the biggest challenges that's facing older people in New Zealand today, but increasingly also younger people who are feeling more isolated from the society.
So okay, here's the thing. I went to read it because Reddit has all the answers right, and they said, what are some ways to save money for single And they said, get a library card because a library is free and libraries have free activities to potentially meet somebody an educated person there too, and then maybe you solve your singles.
From absolutely and keep in mind to today couples will be spending wasting hundreds of dollars on each other, so there is wat this is your day to save more. Potentially treat yourself though if you want to. If you're not, you know, hanging out with a significant other, treat yourself a little bit, because we know that you needed to make more to be comfortable now, so you know, do that wisely. Valentine's Day.
So what about in retirement do single people have less than couples when it comes to hanging out? The work boots a.
Little bit, so it is quite expensive for very old people. Quite often it's because you're not able to share a load. So again it's really housing costs and the cost of care that really pushes things up. So unfortunately, there is this kind of this penalty of being single where you just don't have the economies of scale when it comes to housing and utilities, and so there's there's a little bit of a bit of a challenge there for older people.
And of course, as you know, we have a lot more single older people as your partner passes away before the other one. And of course we're also seeing those at the margin more marriages breaking up later on in life. So there's lots of reasons why we're seeing lots more people living alone in older ages.
And there are so many too. For one deals that I see there are cheaper holiday packages, single rooms cost more than doubles. Car insurance companies give discounts for more than one vehicle, and Uber eights always have deals buy one curry and get another free, that kind of thing. It seems like there's no winning for singles out there.
I reckon it's coming though. So while it is still the case that we have larger families still being the dominant part of our societies, over the course of the coming decade, we're going to see the fastest growing groups being singles in couples, and so as we see the number of people living alone increased massively, I think the marketers are going to tip into that group of people as long as they're buying enough stuff. So I think
you're right. Right now, we're not seeing marketers really looking into this massive market of single people who are ready to consume things. But we will see that change over the coming decades because their demographic tie. It is turning already, and we will see it pick up pace quite considerably.
And I es, buying your own home seems impossible for a single person unless you're out there having no fue and eating plane rice and tuna for breakfast and lunch and dinner. How can a single person do it alone?
Look, it is hard. It's hard for everybody, and it's even harder for singles, mainly because it's harder for them to save because compared to a couple who are on comparable incomes. If there's two of them, they will have just more money left over at the end of the week, So that inability to save means it's harder to get to the deposit. Once you get the deposit, it's a lot of your income that might be going towards your home.
You know, some of the strategies that we're seeing coming out at the moment is a lot of younger people who are single are borrowing from their mom and dad to be able to put in the deposit. They're taking on housemates to be able to afford it. So they're not ideal solutions, but those are the kinds of strategies that people are dealing with given just how difficult it is to get into the housing market.
I interviewed brookvie Velden last year about workplace law changes, including paternity leave, and I do think I stunned her into silence by suggesting a type of paternity leave for single people. Given the changing landscape now, the universal idea of that nuclear family from the fifties is kind of just getting dimmer and dimmer. Should we start talking about entitle tments for perhaps single and or childless workers as well.
So are you suggesting the government pays for people who don't have children to have a form of.
Leave. I mean, it's a conversation starter.
Look, I don't think that's where this government is going. It's an interesting concept. I think it's the first time that's been raised with me.
But do you think the government should be looking at things to help ease the cost of living for single people? What about the government bring in some kind of single person home grount or something like that to help, because we know millennials and Gen z they're partnering later in life if at all.
Yeah, And I think it's it's that what's the ideal state of households in New Zealand versus what the reality is. I think in our mind it's still that nuclear family with mom, dad, to kids and a dog, right, But that's not really the reality of how New Zealand lives anymore.
So our policies, our settings, the things that we're trying to do are very focused around that nuclear family unit, except of course, what we've got is that you know, younger people coupling up later, older people living singly or couplely. There's all the kind of wider issues of housing affordability and the cost of living, and our welfare system or our system of supporting each other isn't really taking that
into account. Now. I don't know for sure if we should have a specific policy for singles, but certainly I think we should have welfare that gives everybody dignity in life. And when people are not able to afford the basics in life and have a reasonable standard of living, what we see is that people become disconnected and discomfited, and
we see anger in society and in our politics. I'm not saying it's caused by singles, but what I'm saying is that when we feel like, because of where we are in a life, somehow we can't participate in the things that are normal for New Zealand, that's really troubling and I feel like that is starting to happen.
I know a lot of countries around the world are offering more tax benefits to adults who have more children. Hungry, for example, has launched a tax exemption for mothers who have two or more children. Is it fair to say that governments prefer us to have children grow the population and all that.
Absolutely, we've seen around the world over many, many years, many decades, efforts to try and encourage people to have more children. None of them have worked, so it's just a complete and utter waste of money. It might help those families who have children, but actually none of these policies have proven to increase fertility rates, so it's good
money after that. I think it'd be much better if we just properly spend money on childcare and education and things like that, and actually just made it easier for women in particular to be able to take time off for work if they needed to care for their families, and for elderly people, because it's those kinds of issues that are much bigger issues.
Right.
It's not that we're coupling up later because we don't want to have kids. It's because everything just costs so damn much that we have to spend many years to progrisinal careers before we can afford those things. So look, absolutely we're seeing those policies around the world to try and increase fertility rates, but I can tell you of all the reviews that I have seen, they don't work.
And I guess back to life being hard when you're single. If you're single and you lose your job, you lose one hundred percent of your income, right, but if you're living with a partner, you lose part of it. That puts added pressure on single people high on top of everything else, exactly, you.
Just have less room to maneuver. And I think that's that wider thing of you know, I'm not again, I'm not going to tell you to couple up with somebody who's not suitable. But having a partner or friends or family or wider network who can support you through those hard times is really helpful. And we tend to kind
of focus on the immediate family for those kinds of things. Particularly, I think in mainstream society when you look at Mari and Pacifica in particular, or even in Asian communities, we do see a lot more of community help in terms of those informal networks being much stronger. But we have lost a lot of that in New Zealand because you know, the deal when we built the welfare state was that you don't need to maintain those other things because the
government's got you. But of course we know that things like welfare and other things, you know, there's a stand down period you have to wait and if you're a single person and there is no one to support you, it becomes really troubling. And also the challenge, of course is that, as you know, in a lot of the
poverty in New Zealand is amongst our working people. You know, we have this big issue of the working poor in New Zealand where if you're working in jobs that are precarious in terms of hours and pay, then it is really hard when something happens. So it's that inability to
make things work for yourself. So the solution to that, of course is to have some precautionary savings if you can, so always have a little bit of a thing on the side, because life happens and you need to be prepared and you can't always rely on somebody else.
And is it an issue of high rent prices as well? I mean, how much of a single person's income only goes towards rent?
Yeah, quite a big check. And that's where the big difference is because if you think about it, if there is a you know, we're comparing a couple of similar you know, two similar incomes and one person living on their own. They might be renting the same type of let's one bedroom apartment and the cost will be the same, but one is spread across two incomes and for the
single person they're sharing the whole load. And so on average, the typical kind of rent in New Zealand versus the typical wage in New Zealand is roughly around forty percent. So if you're living alone, then you know you're spending forty percent of the income minimum to kind of be able to afford your home. Whereas it there's two of you, you might be able to afford a better place, or you might be able to spend a lot less of your combined income on your house. And that is the
housing is the big one. There is just no economist a scale when it comes to splitting a house.
Not to mention, couples who choose to get married get a financial assist by the way of cashing gifts from wedding guests. Right, is it time to make getting married to yourself popular so I can set up a registry?
Do you think you're still going to get the gifts and things?
Well, that's what i'd hope for.
Yeah, well, I don't know. I think it's a very novel idea and we should give it a go and see what happens.
Well, there's also that, I guess stigma towards how single people spend their money as well. Hey, I remember an episode of Sex in the City where carries Minola and Dolani's got stolen at her friend's house. When she asked her mate to pay for them, she said it's irresponsible for carry to spend hundreds of dollars on shoes and refuses. But then she adds up all the money she spent on her friend over the years, from baby showers to bachelorette parties, and decided to make her foot the bill anyway,
don't forgives. I mean, if you.
Got married or had a child, she spend the same on you.
And if I don't ever get married or have a baby, what I get? Bob kiss think about it.
If you are single after graduation, there isn't one occasion where people celebrate you. We are birthdays.
No, no, no, no, we all have birthdays. That's awash I am talking about the single galp.
Hallmark doesn't make a congratulations you didn't marry the wrong guide card?
And where's the flatwear for going on vacation alone? I guess what I'm trying to get at is is it fair that single people get chastised for the way that they spend their money?
Absolutely not, absolutely not. I think how you choose you choose to spend your money is up to you, and I think there is a lot of judgment that happens regardless. I just put out a survey on social cohesion in New Zone and one of the things that really comes through in that is the stereotyping that we do and the projection that we do our own values and preferences
to other people. And that's really unfair. Right when we are dealing with somebody else, we should be curious to understand where they're coming from, rather than try to convert them to our way of being. You know, the whole beauty of this world is not because everybody's like you. It's because people are different, and we like being around people who are different to us. That's where the joy comes from.
So, Chama Belle, let's have a little brainstorm. What are some discounts or I guess government interventions that would benefit single childless people.
Do you think, well, I think it's really thinking about whether or not the way that we think about what kind of households need A lot of support right at the moment, it's very geared to as families. I understand why we should invest in children, that's fine, But the fact that there is a high cost of being single is currently reflected in things like the New Zealand super but not in many of the other types of assistance
that's out there. So we should really try and think very carefully about are we helping those people who really need it, or are we helping people that we think morally and values wise, that we think are more deserving than of others. Now, there is no reason why single people should be stigmatized just because that's not our model view of a New Zealand family looks like, because that is simply not true anymore.
Thanks for joining us, Jammer Belle, thank you for having me. That's it for this episode of The Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at enzdherld dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sills and Richard Martin, who is also our sound engineer. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines,