NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi president Sandra Grey is blaming the Government for new data released by Stats NZ today that shows child poverty continuing to be a stain on New Zealand.
“Working to reduce inequality for families should be the top priority for politicians. This Government was elected to reduce costs, but their policies are leading to increased poverty and material hardship,” said Grey.
“Child poverty continues to trend upwards. The data shows that one in eight children live in poverty before housing costs, one in six after housing costs. That means one in seven children living are living in material poverty. There has been little improvement in the data over the past year, and on all three core measures of poverty the data has got worse since 2023.
“The biggest worry should that 23,700 more children are living in material poverty since 2023, up 16%. That means that they are going without the absolute basics including food, clothing, and heating.
“Progress on reducing child poverty has gone backwards over the past two years and it’s no wonder given the Government is making the cost-of-living crisis worse. They have cut the minimum wage in real terms, kept benefits low, and increased costs for essentials including prescriptions and travel costs.
“Tackling child poverty should be a top priority of this Government, but instead they are focused on cutting services to fund tax cuts for landlords and big business,” said Grey.