The Child Poverty Action Group says the Budget does nothing to help low-income families but will simply keep them poor and, in many cases, sick for longer.
Group member Anne Else told a post-Budget breakfast meeting in Wellington on Friday that in principle it's good the Government has allocated $12 million over four years to fighting rheumatic fever.
Increasing frontline community staff, school-based sore-throat clinics and resource and training programmes for health professionals and community workers are also positive, Dr Else said.
But none of it, she said, will address the underlying hardship problems being faced by many families.
"Rheumatic fever is caused primarily by cold damp overcrowded housing, and living in this kind of housing, we should tell Mr Key, is not a lifestyle choice. It's caused by poverty."
Dr Else says this Budget will allow inequality and poverty to grow.
