TOM PULLAR-STRECKER

Retirement Commissioner Diana Crossan has labelled her $5.8 million budget "pathetic", telling MPs the commission needed three times as much money.

Crossan later upped that to "20 times", while acknowledging that was probably how many people felt about budgeting for retirement.

She is not alone in pleading poverty.

Chief ombudsman Beverley Wakem said last month that the Office of the Ombudsmen was in crisis and appealed for an extra $1m to be added to its $8.6m budget.

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff last month told Justice Minister Judith Collins that its $3.4m budget had not increased since 2006 and rapid growth in ICT and online activity was "placing pressure on its regulatory, policy and communications capabilities".

Appearing in front of a select committee yesterday, Crossan said that if the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income had more money, the first place she would put it would be in schools.

"The Australians announced last year that $10m would go into teaching financial education in schools over the next three years. We get nothing in particular for this."

The Bankers Association and the Young Enterprise Trust had helped develop teaching resources and the commission had partnered with banks to provide education to schoolchildren, but Crossan said she believed financial literacy would best be taught by "ordinary classroom teachers".

ASB Bank's retail general manager, Ian Park, said it had helped 175,000 schoolchildren learn basic money management skills since it launched its free "GetWise" programme two years ago and last year doubled the number of "classroom facilitators" to six.

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Retirement commissioner seeks budget increase