National poverty critical

St Vincent de Paul's Hamilton manager, Mike Rolton (pictured), says New Zealand is currently experiencing poverty on a level unknown in modern times.

"Six years ago we gave out 600 food parcels. Last year we did 6,000 parcels. This year we've forecast we'll do 7,000 parcels, so you can see the increase" he says.

Where in the past the public made donations to "Vinnies" Hamilton, that's dwindled as people can no longer afford it, Rolton says.

"We're using more of our own money to buy food. In the past we would have been lucky to spend $20,000 a year. Now we're spending about $100,000 a year on food to put in our parcels."

Doing it tough

One of the Hamilton families depending on Vinnies food parcels has a single mum.

She was left with eight dependent children five years ago after her partner was killed in a car accident.

Today she still has five children aged five to 17 at home.

"I have a budget of $100 ... I buy frozen vegetables, the cheapest meat ... and I try to get a bag of spuds each week which we ration out."

She is on a benefit and after $480 for her two-bedroom rental is gone, the power paid for and her $100 weekly family food budget spent, she's left with next to nothing.

"Tossing up between paying my rent or buying food is pretty much where I'm at" she says.

The Vinnies food parcels are essential - though a last resort.

"I don't see Vinnies every week as I don't want to abuse them. I try to use them every second week when something like the power bill comes in.

Her food parcels generally include canned food, pasta, long-life milk and a pack of mince.

"The ladies at the food bank are awesome. Every now and again I get some muffins. I take them home and it's a treat for my little ones."

Everyone's scraping the barrel

Vinnies Hamilton estimates that while half their food parcels go to beneficiaries, the other half go to people in paid employment. Rolton says Vinnies is seeing a growing number of people dropping from "middle class" to the "working poor".

"We're seeing a lot of workers who you wouldn't expect to be asking for help with food. But we've seen their budgets and they need help.

"A number of people working for government organisations are coming to us ... social workers may need help, working couples are coming in ... they're in tears when we give them parcels."

Children suffer

Child Poverty Action Group states one in eight Kiwi kids are living in material hardship.

This means they can't afford six or more basics including fresh food, heating, doctor's visits, car maintenance and unexpected bills.

Over a fifth of Maori children and a third of Pasifika children live in poverty.

The Group also says half of Kiwi kids in poverty are in households where parents work.

Source

• NewsHub

It has written an open letter and launched a petition, demanding a meeting with incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon before Christmas.

CPAGs health spokesperson and former paediatrician Professor Ines Asher says they're calling for the meeting because none of the parties forming the new Government have policies to reduce child poverty.

She says it's "alarming" that there has been a "surge of babies admitted to hospital" with preventable diseases.

"Most of these babies become so sick because of their inadequate living conditions which enable bugs to thrive ...".

Asher says there's not enough for the basics; homes are cold and overcrowded, unhealthy and mouldy.

The nutrition is poor and stress levels are high.

Policies can be created to intervene to ensure these families can access the "basics" which she says will reduce hospital admissions.

Food accessibility, affordability and availability should be included in the policy, Asher says.

She adds that we had policies like this in the 1980s but they have all eroded now.

CPAG wants more help for low-income and benefit-dependent families, more state houses, better legislation about housing standards and help particularly with food adequacy.

For children, this means the food must be of a quality that enables them to be healthy - which is "manifestly" not the case at present, she points out strongly..

The extent of the problem

Almost half a million New Zealanders rely on food handouts each week, CPAG notes.

Stats NZ's most up-to-date Consumer Price Index information shows that, in addition to groceries, food, meat, fish and poultry prices saw an eight per cent increase on the previous year.

It doesn't matter where you live, North or South, people are lining up for assistance with the basics.

Rotorua Salvation Army foodbank corps officer Hana Seddon says the organisation had always been "an important part of a community response to the needs out there".

This year, people with jobs and mortgages struggling to feed their families are also turning to the food bank, she says.

Invercargill-based Salvation Army Major Murray Sanson says they also now see "the working poor".

He says rising rents are putting pressure on families, and extreme weather events in the North Island are creating food insecurity.

A similar story is being reported from the Tauranga Community Foodbank.

Manager Nicki Goodwin says they're seeing "record demand". As is the case elsewhere, homeowners, people working full-time and double-income households are looking for food support.

This year, the food bank has helped 22,298 people within 8213 households. This included 11,797 children she says.

Community help

Communities have developed many innovative ways to help support their food banks, from radio appeals to street collections.

Invercargill's current drive is seasonal and involves "reverse adventers".

They set out to "flip the script" on advent calendars, by collecting donations rather than receiving advent calendar gifts.

Each reverse adventer fills a box or a bag and adds a non-perishable food or toiletry item daily. After collecting 24 donations, the bag is taken to the Salvation Army's food bank.

Source

• Rotorua Daily Post
• NZ Herald
• Stuff
• RNZ

In the face of miserable outcomes in relation to child poverty, obesity, suicide and basic education, the Prime Minister remains upbeat about her government's efforts to date.

"You would be hard pressed to find a government that has done more to focus on child poverty in the last several decades than everything we've been working on," Jacinda Ardern says.

The government has increased benefits and tax credits and other changes to the welfare system, she says.

Yet despite Ardern's child poverty focus, life for New Zealand children compares poorly with that of children from almost every OECD country, the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has found.

Describing New Zealand children's education, obesity and suicide trends as 'deeply embedded and terrifying', UNICEF NZ is calling for significant investment and policy change.

Out of 41 EU and OECD countries, UNICEF ranked New Zealand 35th in child wellbeing outcomes. New Zealand children have the second highest obesity rate in the OECD. Over a third are obese or overweight. Only 64.6 percent of 15 year-olds in New Zealand have basic proficiency in reading and maths.

"The Report Card gives New Zealand an F for failure when it comes to wellbeing outcomes for children," UNICEF says.

UNICEF New Zealand says these poor grades show New Zealand is failing its children.

"This is a woeful result for a country that prides itself on the great outdoors, academic achievement and the international success of our sports teams. It is time to be alarmed and activated about the inequality of opportunity, health and wellbeing in NZ."

New Zealand's Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has also just released research showing child poverty in New Zealand is soaring.

CPAG found that in the year to March since the nationwide lockdown, many more whanau have been doing it tough, with Maori and Pacific people the hardest hit.

Its modelling shows 18,000 more children have likely ended up in poverty in the 12 months to March 2021, even without taking into account the rising cost of housing.

Of these, tamariki Maori and Pacific children were up to three times more likely than Pakeha children to be tipped into poverty.

CPAG says the government did not give children and their families the prioritisation they needed as it developed policy responses to the pandemic.

"It is thanks to the collective efforts of iwi, hapu, community organisations, schools, whanau and families - and low-income children themselves - that the crisis of poverty was not even worse.

"Income loss due to job loss was probably inevitable due to Covid-19, but income loss to the point of inadequacy is due to our inadequate welfare system."

In Ardern's view, however, the government acted on its awareness as soon as Covid hit that vulnerable families would be among the worst hit economically. She says this is why support was rolled out in benefit increases.

Source

• RNZ
• RNZ
• UNICEF
• Image: Stuff

About 40 members of social agencies gathered to discuss the effects of the Budget announcements on child poverty at a breakfast meeting organised by the local Western Bay Child Poverty Action Group.

Speaker Janet McAllister from CPAG says the announcements last week looked like three genres of movies - a wannabe blockbuster, an unexpected romance and a creeping horror.

She says one in five children are living in food insecurity in New Zealand, and this figure was higher among Maori and Pasifika.Read more

The new Child Poverty Related Indicators Report, released Thursday, found there has been no measurable improvement in housing conditions, preventable hospitalisations or food security.

"The report shows our children are suffering unnecessarily.

"Polling shows our communities care and want the Government to ensure families have liveable incomes - and that is an obvious, immediate step to stop many of these issues," says Professor Emeritus Innes Asher, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) spokesperson and Welfare Expert Advisory Group member.

CPAG calls the report "grim" and an "upsetting reality".

"When one out of five children doesn't have enough food to eat in Aotearoa New Zealand, that's a chronic, mass emergency. It's politically-created distress."

"Due to systemic discrimination, whanau Maori, Pacific families and families with disabled members are more likely than others to be facing the toxic stress of poverty.

"Nearly half of Pacific children experience food insecurity, due to low incomes", highlights CPAG.

Reducing child poverty has been a hallmark issue for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who appointed herself minister for child poverty reduction.

In the lead up to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government reported tens of thousands of children had been lifted above income and material hardship since 2018.

The latest Child Poverty Indicators paint a different picture.

Yet Ardern remains up-beat.

"Most children and young people in New Zealand are doing well. However, there is still a group of children for whom life at home is quite different," she said.

"Many of the issues facing children, young people and their families are complex, stubborn and inter-generational, so we know change will take time, and will require sustained action across government and across our communities."

"A major challenge to reducing child poverty involves housing affordability, which has worsened slightly since 2018."

The report found 36 per cent of children lived in households where over 30 per cent of the disposable income was spent on housing.

"Spending more than 30 percent of disposable household income on housing costs is generally considered unaffordable," the report's authors comment.

They say there has not been much "statistically significant" change in the number of children living in homes with major dampness or mould problems.

Source

• Stuff
• Scoop
• Image: Child Poverty Action Group