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Child poverty figures released by Statistics New Zealand last month show further urgent Government action is needed to lift more children and whānau out of poverty, according to the Salvation Army.
Army social policy and parliamentary unit analyst, Paul Barber, says the figures show good progress, but more needs to be done to “reduce the unacceptably high level of child poverty that has plagued our communities for the past 30 years”.
He adds that the child poverty figures show some of the impact of additional assistance through the Families Package, additional hardship grants, the lifting of the minimum wage and general wage increases.
“However, hardship grant payments reflect the inadequacy of benefit levels, and targeting additional income into families with the lowest incomes must be a budget priority,” he says.
