Abstract
The Child Poverty Monitor is a partnership between the J R McKenzie Trust, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner, and the New Zealand Child and Youth Epidemiology Service (NZCYES) at the University of Otago.
This tenth annual Child Poverty Monitor technical report begins with stories from communities in Aotearoa where mokopuna are supported to thrive. These stories point to the world we are committed to, a society where every child is valued, and enjoys their rights to thrive and to achieve their potential. Mokopuna know only too well the barriers that stop them from enjoying their right to a good life. Because of poverty, racism and discrimination, whānau and children struggle to meet everyday needs and miss out on opportunities that are taken for granted by most in Aotearoa. In reflecting on what makes a good life, children and young people talk about the importance of strong family relationships, with supported parents, in a community that loves and accepts them.
The technical report presents the most recent child poverty statistics with commentary on how well Government targets are being met for different groups of children. Conditions in which children and whānau live their lives day-by-day are reflected in statistics regarding financial assistance, good work, suitable housing and food security. Child poverty related indicators in health include access to primary care, as well as deaths and hospitalisations of children, and immunisation coverage. Data on aspects of child safety underscore the importance of children being loved and nurtured in safe environments. Education indicators provide an indication of the opportunities for learning available to mokopuna.
There is a lag between collection of data in national surveys and publication of the results. The child poverty statistics are based on data collection for the 2020/21 Household Economic Survey (HES) that concluded in June 2021. Data collection for the HES has been interrupted in the past two years due to the protections in place during phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most health data are presented to the end of the 2021 calendar year, but mortality data were available only to the end of the 2018 calendar year.
Expanded data collection in the household economic survey allows disaggregation of child poverty statistics by ethnicity and by disability status of the child and members of the child’s household. These analyses reveal inequity in the outcomes of measures to reduce child poverty. European children have met the population level targets for proportions living in low-income households or in households experiencing material hardship. Implementation of policies that overcome systemic disadvantage are needed to extend this achievement to all children and their households, including tamariki Māori, Pacific children and disabled children.
This report will be launched as Aotearoa, with the rest of the world, comes to the end of the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2020 the Government Budget anticipated increases in levels of income poverty and material hardship for children in Aotearoa.
This budget secured access to a $50 billion COVID Response and Recovery Fund. This was an unprecedented amount of stimulus for the economy to prevent and mitigate the risks of COVID-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The pandemic response included easily accessible wage subsidies to try to prevent job losses. It included changes to criteria for accessing emergency grants, food bank services, and other systems that mitigate poverty.
However, some communities bore the brunt of the pandemic more than others. For example, a study found almost one in five (18%) of Pacific households lost half or more of their household income due to COVID-19. The impacts of the pandemic and of additional government investments cannot easily be dissected from the data in this report. Substantial investment during 2020-2021 might have masked some ongoing and underpinning factors related to poverty. Ongoing measures of child poverty among different cohorts and communities will be needed to determine long-term changes to rates of poverty throughout the population.
The foundations for Aotearoa to be the best place in the world to be a child have been set in place with the commitment of Parliament to the Child Poverty Reduction Act 20187 and the setting of Government targets, as well as in the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 and Children’s and Young People’s Well-being Act 1989. No child should be left behind as Aotearoa moves to meet these targets. This report identifies actions taken within communities to overcome barriers to mokopuna, especially Māori, Pacific and disabled children, living their best lives. This is the time to be ambitious for all mokopuna, not just some, and achieve positive outcomes for all children.