Beneficiary advocates are concerned the Ministry for Social Development won't be able to cope with the vast number of people needing to access benefits during the Covid-19 crisis.
The Social Development Minister, Carmel Sepuloni, has been grilled by MPs at the Epidemic Response Committee on why forecasts on future job seekers have not yet been made public.
Last week about 10,000 people applied for benefits, taking the number of people on the jobseekers benefit to about 160,000 people.
But there's still no clear indication as to how many more people may apply for that benefit - and others - during the coming months.
Māni Dunlop spoke to the Coordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty, Ricardo Menendez-March.
