default-output-block.skip-main
National | Andrew Becroft

'We talk of a climate emergency but we have a child poverty emergency'

According to income and hardship data, the country was roughly on track to meet its targets under the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018. But Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft has warned that Covid-19 may increase poverty and hardship rates further.

Becroft, Otago University and the JR McKenzie Trust today launched the 2020 Child Poverty Monitor at a special event at Parliament hosted by Prime Minister and Child Poverty Reduction Minister Jacinda Ardern.

On the most recent data, just over 13% or 150,000 of all tamariki experience material hardship. This means they live in households unable to afford six or more essential items, including having enough to eat, fresh vegetables and warm clothes. Becroft says, “Covid-19 has made it worse particularly for 13% of children, some 150,000 who are struggling. Covid-19 has amplified and exacerbated and deepened their hardship”.

Commissioner Becroft is calling for three key solutions: to raise family incomes by increasing benefits, enabling people to live with dignity; to increase the supply of state and social housing and bring in new ways to manage rental costs and quality; and to help families meet their immediate needs, for example by expanding the food in schools programme and extending free medical care to everyone under the age of 18.

"Now is the time for some big bold decisive action," Becroft says. " Covid-19 can't be an excuse for stalling or doing less. Covid-19 is actually the opportunity to do more.”

“About a quarter of children live in damp and sometimes mouldy homes, and children living in areas with the highest levels of deprivation are twice as likely to end up in a hospital than children in the least deprived areas.”