1. Presentation template
For use by individuals and organisations in full or part. Please reference the Child Poverty Monitor if using any of this material.
Sources of information:
Child Poverty Monitor website ( and Technical Report
Solutions to Child Poverty in New Zealand: Evidence for Action, Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on Solutions to Child Poverty, 2012.
Office of the Children’s Commissioner (
Possible framing:
We all want a NZ where all children thrive…
Where they:
have the things they need to meet their basic needs (like nutritious food, clothes, a bed)
live in safe, healthy homes
do not suffer preventable illnesses
go to school ready to learn and achieve
grow up emotionally supported and loved
But many children do not have access to the resources they need to help them thrive

2. Child poverty is a real problem in New Zealand
NZ has high rates of child poverty using income measures
This picture illustrates the largest standard measure of child poverty that we use – income poverty.
Income measure – set at 60% of the median household income AHC (after housing costs are taken off); 295,000 children are in this group. Income is a good way of gauging if families will have enough money to pay bills and buy necessities.

3. Child poverty is a real problem in New Zealand
NZ has high rates of child poverty using material hardship measures
This picture illustrates the measure that people use that indicates how children are living – the hardship they suffer due to their poverty. There are two measures: one, (with families missing out on seven or more essentials) that we reported on in previous years; and another, (where families miss out on nine or more essentials) that the Government began reporting last year to identify those most in hardship.
Measures of material hardship- measured by how many children are in families regularly going without many of the items most New Zealanders believe are essential, such as
Two good pairs of shoes
A good bed for each child
A meal with protein every two days
Fresh fruit and veg
Ways to keep warm
Visits to the doctor
Payments of rates, electricity and water
Cannot pay an unexpected bill of $500 within a month without borrowing.
There are 155,000 children missing out on 7 or more things on the list (of 17)
There are 85,000 missing out on 9 or more things on the list. This is a significant level of material hardship.
No one item is responsible for poor outcomes, but together, they can indicate the extent of hardship, and how hardship may be impacting families’ choices.
Full list of 17:
ENFORCED LACK OF ESSENTIALS (FOR RESPONDENT OR HOUSEHOLD AS A WHOLE)
1. meal with meat, fish or chicken (or vegetarian equivalent) at least each 2nd day
2. two pairs of shoes in good repair and suitable for everyday use
3. suitable clothes for important or special occasions
4.presents for family and friends on special occasions
5.home contents insurance
6. borrowed money from family or friends more than once in the last 12 months to cover everyday living costs
FINANCIAL STRESS AND VULNERABILITY
7. feel ‘very limited’ by the money available when thinking about purchase of clothes or shoes for self (options were: not at all, a little, quite limited, and very limited)
8. could not pay an unexpected and unavoidable bill of $500 within a month without borrowing
ECONOMISED
9. went without or cut back on fresh fruit and vegetables
10. bought cheaper cuts of meat or bought less than wanted
11. put up with feeling cold to save on heating costs
12. postponed visits to the doctor
13. postponed visits to the dentist
14. did without or cut back on trips to the shops or other local places
15. delayed repairing or replacing broken or damaged appliances
IN ARREARS MORE THAN ONCE IN LAST 12 MONTHS
16. rates, electricity, water
17. vehicle registration, insurance or warrant of fitness

4. The two material hardship measures indicate different levels of severity of hardship. The first -- “7up” -- means missing out on 7 or more things from the list of essentials.

5. The second material hardship measure -- “9up” -- means missing out on 9 or more things from the list of essentials.

6. Severe poverty 2016: These families and children are doing it hard
It is worse for those in severe poverty (both low income and material hardship)
Severity - this is where a family suffers both insufficient income and is doing without the things they need. (E.g. they are going without the things they need and their low income means they don’t have the financial means to change this.)

7. Persistent poverty 2016: These families and children are doing it hard
The impacts of poverty are worse for children remaining in poverty for long periods of their young lives
Persistence – Some families can go through tough times but are able to move out of poverty. – Persistence is defined as an average family income over 7 years being below the poverty line.
3 out of 5 children living in poverty live this way for many years – in persistent poverty. Spending long periods of time in poverty from a young age makes it difficult for children to do well later in life. (Critical brain and cognitive development can be compromised if a child is sick a lot, is not getting the quality of food they need and has limited access to quality ECE. This is a critical foundation for future development.)

8. Some facts about children in poverty
What do we know about the composition of children living in poverty?
Child poverty has many faces:
Half of the children in poverty are Pakeha, the remaining half are Māori and Pasifika
Just under half (47%) are in two-parent families, with the remaining 53% in sole parent families.
Around 45% are in households where at least one adult is in paid work (up from 37% previous year – showing an increasing trend of the ‘working poor’); with 55% now relying some form of a benefit (that includes Super, ACC, sickness and disability as well as job seeker benefit). (That is down from 63% in previous year).
Poverty in New Zealand can be invisible. It is concentrated in particular communities. Many people don’t recognise it is an issue, because they don’t operate in the same communities.
Also it can be ‘normalised’ if the people around you are suffering similar levels of poverty – in these situations families don’t know how severely sick a child may be or how inadequately heated their home is.

9. Children in poverty are likely to live in poor quality housing
The costs of home heating and housing affordability (rents and house prices) have increased at twice the rate of inflation over the past 10 years. This means people in poverty suffer greater inflationary pressures from the necessities of rents and heating costs than people with high incomes.
There is a direct link between quality of housing and children’s health. Cold, damp, draughty homes can make children sick. Overcrowding that results from unaffordable housing can spread these sicknesses to a larger number of children.

10. Children in poverty are likely to live in crowded housing
One in every six children lives in crowded homes, defined as needing at least another bedroom (using a standard calculation that includes the number of people, the ages and genders of the children and young people, and relationships of adults in the home).
Crowded housing means children are more likely to co-sleep near other children and spread infectious respiratory and skin diseases.

11. The technical report of the Child Poverty Monitor outlines a large number of illnesses that have a ‘socioeconomic gradient’. That is, children in low socioeconomic status areas experience higher rates of the illness.
This can be caused by cold, damp, mouldy or crowded housing.
Also, there are many financial and non-financial barriers suffered by those in poverty that prevent them from getting to the doctor or hospital at an early stage. This means some children first show up at hospitals with severe illnesses that could have been treated more easily if they had received attention earlier.
The children suffer physically and mentally from these bouts of poor health and it can result in life-long poor health.

12. The educational disparity between high income families and low income families is stark.
In New Zealand, a child’s socioeconomic status has a larger bearing on their academic achievement than in most other comparable countries.
While 91% of students from the top 20% of incomes achieve at least NCEA Level 2, only 65% from the bottom 20% of incomes do so.

13. Child poverty has gotten worse over the past three decades
Child poverty has gotten worse over the past three decades. Some questions you could ask your audience or discuss your thoughts:
What changes in policy settings might have contributed to this?
What changes in the economy and jobs might have contributed to this?
Are there changes in family and social structure might have contributed to this?
How is it that our seniors are fairing better than children?

14. Reaching our Sustainable Development Goals
Agenda 2030 is an international Sustainable Development Goal that New Zealand has agreed to support – that aims to reduce by half all forms of poverty among all groups of people.
Reducing child poverty by half would bring it back to levels not seen since the 1980s, and enjoyed by those currently aged in their 40’s, 50’ s and 60’s.

15. Reaching our Sustainable Development Goals
The Sustainable Development Goal means reducing by half all forms of poverty among all groups of people. So this is what it would look like for material hardship.

16. Some children are at greater risk
Greatest need for external support
Greatest harm incurred
Greatest inequalities
Greatest return on investment
Very young children
Māori and Pasifika children
Children in sole-parent families
Children in severe and persistent poverty
The burden of poverty impacts some children more than others.
Māori and Pasifika children are over-represented in poverty and hardship, and suffer the greatest inequalities.
Children in sole-parent families have highest rates of poverty and often have fewer family supports to help them.
Children in severe and persistent poverty suffer the greatest harm, and are often vulnerable due to long-term impacts on their development.
Investment in very young children, whether in they are currently in poverty or not, provides the greatest opportunity for pay-back. (Because social, cognitive, physical and emotional development in children can be permanently ingrained – such as through development of neuronal connections, or through ‘epigenetic’ effects, which can permanently alter the way genes are expressed.)
Source: Office of the Children’s Commissioner (

17. What do children say? Source:
Our views matter: Children and young people talk about solutions to poverty,
December A consultation carried out for the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert
Advisory Group (EAG) on Solutions to Child Poverty

18. This is a WordArt of the impacts commonly associated with child poverty.
For detail, see:
Solutions to Child Poverty in New Zealand: Evidence for Action, Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on Solutions to Child Poverty, 2012.
Ask your audience to think about what child poverty means to them. Does it impact on their day-to-day life? How does it impact on the country as a whole? What do they see as doing the most harm?