The Government Statistician has provided a definition for ‘persistent child poverty’ and confirmed the way Stats NZ will measure it, using a mix of survey and administrative data. Under the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018 the Government Statistician is required to define persistent child poverty before 1 July 2025. Government Statistician and Stats NZ Chief Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Child Poverty’
Stats NZ delivers on its commitment to measure persistent child poverty
Thursday, November 14th, 2024Overseas aid spent on children has a tenfold return, charity calculates
Thursday, May 9th, 2024
New research by the charity World Vision and the accountants Ernst & Young Australia suggests that every $1 of overseas-development funding that targets children has a measurable benefit of $10. The calculation is made in Putting Children First for Sustainable Development, published on Tuesday, which quantifies the social and economic benefits of Official Development Assistance Read more
Children’s Commissioner wants cross-party help to end child poverty
Thursday, April 18th, 2024
The Children’s Commissioner has spoken about the problem of child poverty in New Zealand. A recent Growing Up in New Zealand survey shows New Zealand child poverty has become worse over the past four years. Improving this has to be a cross partisan aspiration, says Chief Children’s Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad (pictured). She notes the Read more
Sallies say beneficiary crackdown won’t solve child poverty
Monday, March 4th, 2024
Beneficiary crackdown plans won’t resolve worsening child poverty statistics. Salvation Army policy analyst Ana Ika (pictured) says the Government’s approach is misguided. “In theory, it sounds like it’ll work, but it’s a simple solution for a complex issue” she says. But sanctioning beneficiaries to push them into employment will not resolve our worsening child poverty Read more
Children working to help their families fly under radar
Monday, February 19th, 2024As many as 15,000 teenagers are taking on paid work to help pay for family basics and government agencies urgently need to find out how many are dropping out of school to do so, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)says. CPAG is urgently calling for adequate support to school students who are working too many Read more
Child poverty – urgent help needed from new PM
Thursday, November 16th, 2023
Child poverty must be at the top of the incoming Government’s agenda, says the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). It has written an open letter and launched a petition, demanding a meeting with incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon before Christmas. CPAGs health spokesperson and former paediatrician Professor Ines Asher says they’re calling for the meeting Read more
Child poverty issues still need focus
Thursday, October 19th, 2023
Child poverty in New Zealand has been notably absent from the election debate, say four prominent public health analysts. Jonathan Boston, John Kerr, Michael Baker and Russell Wills say that, although recent governments have successfully implemented a range of anti-poverty measures, child poverty barely figured during the 2023 election campaign. “During the 2017 general election Read more
Working for Families review – is this the best we can expect?
Monday, August 28th, 2023
For the last two decades critics have seen Working for Families (WFF) as discriminatory, poorly designed, far too complex and woefully ineffective in addressing the worst child poverty. In 2004, CPAG explained what was so wrong in a publication called Cut Price Kids and has been campaigning to fix WFF ever since. After the WEAG Read more
‘Barefoot and hungry’ – children bear brunt
Thursday, June 29th, 2023Teachers are warning of a gruelling winter ahead for children in poverty, as the cost-of-living crisis takes a major toll on struggling families, says KidsCan. “They say it is affecting learning, with more children arriving hungry, others barefoot in freezing weather, and sickness spreading in overcrowded, unheated homes.,” says a KidsCan spokesperson. KidsCan has seen Read more
Food insecurity is starving with Budget crumbs
Monday, May 22nd, 2023
Food insecurity is an urgent problem the Government must fix. “The more hungry we are, the more we will see unrest,” says Auckland City Missioner Helen Robinson. “Thousands and thousands of us just don’t have enough money for food.” She should know. Over the past 10 years, demand for City Mission food parcels has risen Read more