Children are paying the price of budget cuts
Children are paying the price of cost cutting and this needs to end, says Bonnie Robinson, director of The Salvation Army Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit.
The latest figures for child poverty released today reflect the analysis from our State of the Nation 2025 report released last week.
Thousands more children were in material hardship in the year to June 2024 than in 2023. With one in four children facing food insecurity and 232,000 children in households needing welfare support in 2024, the poverty figures confirm our fears that the spending cuts for crucial food, housing and other income support for already struggling families are driving more children into hardship. Pacific and Māori children experience material hardship rates more than twice that of children of other ethnicities and no sign of this decreasing.
We call on the Government to move immediately to increase income support settings and hardship assistance to levels that lift children out of hardship.
Children in low-income households should not be the ones paying the highest price to meet Government goals of bringing the books back into order.
In the midst of the deep recession that has been going on for nearly two years, what children and families need are direct support for food, affordable housing and adequate incomes.
Getting more people into paid work is an important objective for social policy but ending child poverty needs a genuine plan for all children to be lifted out of poverty, not just those whose parents are fortunate enough to find paid work.
Children do not get to choose their financial circumstances, yet we know that living in poverty and material hardship can blight the rest of their lives, with resulting costs to our future health and welfare systems. Our children need help now, so that they can thrive and grow up to contribute and participate in society.
The Salvation Army Territorial Media Officer, 021 945 337, email: media@salvationarmy.org.nz (The Media Officer responds to enquiries from media outlets and journalists. If you would like to donate, are in need of help, or have some other non-media-related enquiry, please call 0800 53 00 00.)