Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc. ( Closing the Gap
MEDIA RELEASE: Child Poverty Monitor partnership show that child poverty in New Zealand is bad and not getting any better

The Child Poverty Monitor partnership: the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, the JR McKenzie Trust and the NZ Child & Youth Epidemiology Service—Otago University, has just released its fourth annual report which clearly shows that child poverty in New Zealand is bad and not getting any better

As individuals and as a country we should be ashamed say Peter Malcolm spokesperson for Income Equality Aotearoa New Zealand Inc. Closing the Gap
The key data from the 2016 Monitor:-
• 14% of children are living in material hardship. That means 155,000New Zealand children are in households that are living without 7 or more items, from a total list of 17, which are considered necessary for their wellbeing.
• 8% (or 85,000) of New Zealand children are experiencing even worse material hardship with households missing out on 9 or more items from the list of 17. This is a new measure for the Child Poverty Monitor following its introduction to government reporting last year.
• 28% of children are living in low income homes. That means 295,000 New Zealand children are in homes where money is tight and are considered to be in income poverty.
• More than 8% of children are in severe poverty. That means 90,000 New Zealand children are experiencing both material hardship and living in a low income household.
• While child poverty has been reasonably stable for a number of years, it is significantly worse than the 1980s. In 1982 the percentage of children in families experiencing income poverty was 14%, compared to 28% now.
This is appalling says Malcolm and the time to do something about it is long overdue. And our Government seems to be still “sitting on its hands”

Child poverty has been identified by New Zealanders in recent opinion polls as one of the most significant issues facing our country. While New Zealand’s economy continues to grow and prosper, the 2016 Child Poverty Monitor shows there has been no real improvement in child poverty rates.

The solution is actually very simple. Decent affordable warm dry housing for all---think Government supplied social housing---and sufficient income for all—think the living wage as the minimum for all workers, benefits at the same level and decent child allowances.

Apparently our economy is sound and growing and we are one of the lowest taxed countries in the developed world. Somebody is doing very well but it is not the many children who are in poverty. What has happened to our sense of fairness, concern and justice. Wake up New Zealand and seriously do something about this terrible situation says Malcolm

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