Only a small percentage of children will be lifted out of poverty over the next three years by Budget announcements last week, Tauranga social agencies have been told. About 40 members of social agencies gathered to discuss the effects of the Budget announcements on child poverty at a breakfast meeting organised by the local Western Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Child Poverty’
Income support rises welcome
Thursday, May 20th, 2021
Child Poverty Action Group welcomes the income support increases announced today by the Government, saying the rises will be a good step towards income adequacy for many children in need. “The changes today are useful if insufficient. Our modelling shows the changes fall short of liveable incomes, but these increases should still be high enough Read more
Unmet need: in 40 years I’ve never seen it quite like this
Thursday, April 15th, 2021
You may have heard an increasing number of child poverty experts and frontline support services calling on the Government to increase the amount of income support paid to effectively address poverty in New Zealand. What you may not have heard about is the recent UMR poll in February showing seven in 10 New Zealanders support Read more
New child poverty stats not reflective of current situation on the ground
Thursday, February 25th, 2021
New child poverty statistics from Stats NZ paint an optimistic picture for the period before the 2020 Covid lockdowns, Monte Cecilia Housing Trust CEO Bernie Smith says, but the months since then have been brutal for low-income earners and government support is desperately needed. “We’re always happy to see those arrows going in the right Read more
‘Children cannot wait’: Government slammed for ‘unjustifiably slow’ welfare reform
Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Child advocates are slamming the Government for its “unjustifiably slow” action on welfare reform, with a new report finding just four of 126 recommendations have been fully implemented. And it found none the 42 key recommendations made by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group early last year have been achieved almost two years later. The Child Read more
People pushed into poverty: Government won’t raise benefits
Monday, November 23rd, 2020
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has rejected a plea from 59 organizations to lift the level of welfare payments before Christmas. Trade unions, charities and poverty action groups were among those asking the government to address mass unemployment and poverty. Working through umbrella group ActionStation Aotearoa [New Zealand], the groups published an open letter, saying the Read more
Calls for Labour to fast-track child poverty mandate
Thursday, October 22nd, 2020Calls are coming in for the government to fast-track its child poverty mandate. The Child Poverty Action Group is one of several advocating for the new government, led by Child Poverty Reduction Minister Jacinda Ardern, to immediately raise income support. Campaigner Janet McAllister said benefit levels were so low they locked many children into severe Read more
Child poverty facts: PM ‘misleading’
Monday, September 28th, 2020
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is refusing to take responsibility for the country’s damning social statistics; in particular child poverty. Amid the growing need for food banks and the accusation that Ardern, has done nothing to address the issue of child poverty, the Prime Minister told One News that she needs more than one term to Read more
New Zealand’s dismal record on child poverty and the challenge to turn it around
Thursday, July 23rd, 2020
The latest statistics on childhood poverty in New Zealand suggest that, on some key measures, things are worse than previously estimated. About one in six children (16% or 183,000) live below a before-housing-cost relative poverty measure, but that figure jumps to almost one in four (23% or 254,000) once housing costs are accounted for. And Read more
Caritas joins warning – children pushed into poverty by COVID-19
Thursday, July 16th, 2020
Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is one of the thirteen New Zealand aid organisations have banded together to issue a warning over the millions of children plunged into hunger by the global COVID-19 pandemic. Adra, Caritas, CBM, ChildFund New Zealand, Hagar, Hope St, International Needs, Orphans Aid International, The Salvation Army, Save the Children, Tearfund, VSA Read more