No significant change to child poverty rates under successive governments reinforces that lifting children out of material hardship will be an ongoing challenge, Child Poverty Reduction Minister Louise Upston says.
Figures released by Stats NZ today show no change in child poverty rates for the year ended June 2024, reflecting the impact of a prolonged cost of living crisis.
Stats NZ data for the three primary measures show that in 2023/24:
- 13.4 per cent of all children (156,600) were in material hardship – with no statistically significant change compared to 2022/23
- 17.7 per cent of children (208,000) were in poverty, based on household income after housing costs have been paid – with no statistically significant change compared to 2022/23
- 12.7 per cent of children (149,900) were in poverty, based on household income before housing costs have been paid – with no statistically significant change compared to 2022/23.
“It’s encouraging that there has been no significant increase year-on-year, however if we look at what has happened over the previous two years we can see that rates are trending upwards,” Louise Upston says.
“Todays’ figures do reflect the challenges of a prolonged cost of living crisis which began under the previous administration and which we are tackling head-on.
“We know there are some Kiwi families and their kids still doing it tough. Our Government is working to fix that.
“We are committed to changing the circumstances which trap people in poverty, and to addressing the long-term drivers of child poverty.
“Our Government has lifted the incomes of working households experiencing hardship by providing tax relief, reducing inflation and making childcare more affordable by introducing the FamilyBoost childcare tax rebate.
“We’re also providing lunches to around 242,000 learners every day so Kiwi kids have access to food.
“Reducing material hardship is a priority in our Child and Youth Strategy which is why we have a target to lift 17,000 more children out of material hardship by 2027, compared to 2023.
“We recognise that child poverty is a long term issue and our strategy of tackling the deeper causes of poverty, including reducing long-term benefit dependency and lifting education and skills, will make a big difference in driving down child poverty rates.
“It’s encouraging that inflation has continued a downward trend and pressure on families is starting to ease but there is still more to do,” Louise Upston says.
You deceiving scoundrels!
“…reflecting the impact of a prolonged cost of living crisis….”
BS!
The whole ‘poverty’ statistics are CAUSED by the socialized child abuse happening in NZ since decades.
At the forefront of this abuse is the NZ Family Court with its accomplices, the CYF (orangi tamariki) and many unassuming police wo-men.
That abuse will go down in NZ history as the biggest injustice in New Zealand ever. Generations of children (and fathers) have been systematically victimized by the SYSTEM.
Why? Because it serves TPTB in their ratchet racket of division. MO: Render vast portions of the voting masses into dependents for govt crumbs and they will vote forever for hand-outs.
New Zealand WAKE UP!
What a pointless government department 🤦🏼
ALL children are in poverty because most of them earn no income. If you want to improve their lives, improve the lives of their parents first. That means:
1) Dramatically cut (or abolish) taxes.
2) Reduce nonsensical regulations.
3) Switch off (or preferably reverse) immigration.
More jobs, higher salaries, cheaper rent. Easy peasy.
You can tell the above steps are the correct approach by how arrogantly all the mainstream economists, politicians and pundits always snigger at their suggestion.
Or you know whatever, we can keep listening to all these “experts” and watch everything get progressively worse and worse. I’m sure they’ll be right about something one of these days…🤷🏼♂️
The politicians can start with stopping ‘foreign aid’ and deploying troops to the Ukraine!
And now, the Chinese are cruising around offshore of Sydney…
Armed Neutrality is the way to go, but children living in poverty could now face an even greater dilemma similar to the children in Gaza if these provocations should go ‘full hot’.
The Chinese are playing the long game here, testing the waters, and seeing what response is garnered.
Maybe those late teen children will be going from one meal a day in substandard housing alongside grinding poverty to three meals a day in a military barracks with a salary…
In the meantime, be ready for thousands of parachutes to appear at 2 AM over the cities and fields nearby.