Government says it will halve child poverty in 10 years
Child poverty targets for the next 10 years.
Hot Topic
Scrutiny Week
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the government’s 10-year targets for child poverty, which she says will roughly halve the number of children in hardship.
Ms Ardern says the government aims to reduce the proportion of children in low-income households, before housing costs are taken into account, from roughly 15% now to 5% in 10 years’ time. That would cut the number of children in hardship under this measure from 160,000 to 60,000.
Its second target is to reduce the number of children in low-income households, after housing costs, from 210,000 to 120,000.
Under its third target the government wants to cut the number of children in material hardship from 150,000 to 80,000.
“My government’s plan will roughly halve child poverty within 10 years and establish New Zealand as one of the best-performing countries for children. This is what most of us would expect of a country like ours,” Ms Ardern says.
She says she will release the government’s three-year targets in time for the public to have a say when the Child Poverty Reduction Bill is being considered by a parliamentary committee.
Brent Edwards
Thu, 01 Feb 2018
Thu, 01 Feb 2018
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Government says it will halve child poverty in 10 years
73070