Within 100 days of coming to power, the coalition government moved to lift accommodation supplements, the minimum wage and familiy tax credit payment rates, and introduced a winter energy payment.
But how much did it improve the lives of those living in poverty?
A year after the government came to power, reporter Max Towle and cameraman Luke McPake headed to Fairfield in Hamilton, one of the most deprived areas in the country, to find out.
They met Eddie Neha, the manager of the suburb's community house, who told them: "Life for them is a day-by-day survival."
Watch the latest episode of Beyond the Beehive, on inequality, here:
