Queenstown's Mayor says the district could be facing an unprecedented welfare crisis

The district's thousands of migrant workers are currently ineligible for financial support

Jim Boult says the scale of the challenge dwarfs anything experienced before at a local level.

He says the council started a database for migrant workers facing financial issues... and it now has more than four thousand people in it.

Boult says he's been speaking regularly with central government to emphasise the importance of supporting migrant workers.