‘We must staunch the wound caused by Covid’
The sting of Covid-19 has put paid to Judge Andrew Becroft’s cautious optimism that New Zealand was making inroads into child poverty, he tells Vicki Anderson.
Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft has a strong message for New Zealand about child poverty: ‘‘We need to act now.’’ This month, the latest Child Poverty Monitor report revealed 235,000 children – about one in five – live in poverty.
‘‘Child poverty doesn’t exist in a vacuum,’’ Becroft says. ‘‘Its current effects are deep, insidious and profound and, like tentacles, reach out into all areas of a child’s life. It is just crucial that we understand the far-reaching effects of child poverty and act accordingly.’’
The current situation has been ‘‘significantly worsened’’ by the impact of Covid-19, but Becroft says the burden has fallen disproportionately on those ‘‘already doing it really tough’’.
Frontline staff are reporting, ‘‘across the board’’, that food insecurity has worsened nationally, and the mental health concerns of children has ‘‘drastically increased’’.
‘‘We don’t have any clear and demonstrable cross-country statistics, but we do have the clear, insistent voices of those at the frontline who are telling us of these difficulties.’’
Last month Becroft published a report calling for Oranga Tamariki to hand over power and resources for Ma¯ ori to care for their own vulnerable children.
But he wants you to really understand why our children living in deprivation need urgent attention.
‘‘A recent poll found 87 per cent of the public are concerned or seriously concerned about child poverty.
‘‘I am glad we have woken up in the last three years, after 27 years of frankly being asleep at the wheel and a blind faith that a neo-liberal experiment would allow all the benefits to trickle down to children,’’ Becroft says.
‘‘That didn’t happen, and we are now paying the price as a country, and children are paying the price for that abject failure.’’
Next year we must ‘‘staunch the wound caused by Covid’’.
‘‘This Government has done more than any other in the last 30 years but there is still a need for bold change.
‘‘The welfare advisory group made it clear in their findings that benefits had to increase by 20-40 per cent just to make up the damage done in 1991, but that hasn’t happened.’’
The winter energy payment and other small benefit additions are helpful but ‘‘big, bold structural change awaits us’’.
‘‘The Government has a responsibility to erect a safety net. That safety net has failed.’’
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), together with ActionStation and Auckland Action Against Poverty, have led an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the ministers of social development and finance requesting that ‘‘benefit incomes be raised to liveable levels by Christmas’’.
‘‘The letter has now been signed by over 70 organisations around the country: unions and social service providers, including several in Christchurch,’’ says CPAG spokesperson Janet McAllister.
‘‘The large number of organisations who have signed this letter is an indication of the broad consensus in our communities that benefit incomes are inadequate.’’
Beneficiaries debts’ – often incurred through emergency food grants – should be wiped, Working for Families payments increased and housing made more affordable, the groups say.
While not necessarily a life script for poor education and health outcomes, child poverty elevates the risk of adverse life outcomes as well as infant mortality, admission to hospital for accidental injuries and illness, Becroft says.
‘‘It is a scandal that we have rheumatic fever in a highly developed Western country . . . it’s directly related to poverty and poor housing conditions.’’
Becroft says 11 per cent of children live in damp, wet and mouldy houses.
Poverty also elevates the risk of young people becoming involved in crime.
Before Covid-19, it was possible to break the conditions in which children were living into three groups. ‘‘We know 70 per cent lived in relative advantage and economic stability, 20 per cent struggle, living in families where there is incomerelated poverty and significant disadvantage.’’
That was about 230 to 240,000 children. ‘‘And a further 10 per cent are in chronic intergenerational profound disadvantage.’’
This equated to between 140,000 and 150,000 children, ‘‘twice the spectators of Eden Park full’’.
Children living in deprivation are more likely to have health problems.
Dr Arun Natarajan, a paediatric dental specialist at Christchurch Hospital, says millions of dollars are spent each year extracting rotten teeth from children as young as 12 months old.
‘‘Ma¯ ori and Pasifika children are hugely affected when it comes to childhood decay, and obviously child poverty is linked to poor oral health,’’ he says.
Becroft was cautiously optimistic meaningful change could occur before Covid-19 but now he is concerned the ‘‘wheels were falling off’’.
He hailed the Child and Youth wellbeing strategy as ‘‘world leading’’ and welcomed the decision to link benefits – especially benefits to children – to any wage increase.
‘‘ I was cautiously optimistic we were on the right track to meet that target of child poverty at least on income measures . . . but Covid of course has wrecked all that.
‘‘The new target to end child poverty might become 3010.’’
McAllister says this Christmas could be ‘‘the worst that children and their families have experienced in many years’’ due to the Covid-related jump in unemployment, rising rents and inadequate incomes.
New Zealand had experienced a ‘‘long period of low wages and high housing costs’’.
Unemployment had risen by ‘‘nearly a third’’ in the three months to September. ‘‘Foodbanks and youth homelessness services are reporting huge increases in demand. By Christmas, it’s expected Work and Income will have allocated over 2.5 million hardship grants and advances this year alone.
‘‘We have near consensus in this
country on what constitutes ‘enough’ income for children – our legally mandated child poverty measures were voted for, agreed upon, by 118 out of 120 MPs.
‘‘Yet core entitlements for children in households receiving benefits are well below most of these measures, in some cases, even the strictest measures.’’
Covid-19 has affected children and young people in life-changing ways. ‘‘There are schools in South Auckland where 10 per cent of year
12 and 13 students haven’t returned to school after the level 4 Covid lockdown,’’ says Becroft.
‘‘They’ve gone to get work to help their families or, so they can provide care for much younger children so parents can work in new jobs.’’
However, child poverty is not a new issue. ‘‘It was brought about by the late 80s global financial crisis and the mother of all budgets in
1991 that slashed benefits,’’ Becroft says.
‘‘You look at any graph and income-related poverty just went straight up and it has stayed pretty
much the same on-and-off since then.’’
During that time wages grew significantly, GDP doubled and as a country we made a ‘‘great commitment’’ to look after the over-65-yearolds. ‘‘I applaud that, but if we wanted as a country we could do exactly for children as we have done for the over 65s.
‘‘If there was a Unicef report for elderly, which there is not, we would be No 1 or No 2 in the world. Why
can’t we be No 1 or No 2 in the world for children?’’
Becroft is an independent voice for our children and is quick to note he is ‘‘apolitical’’.
‘‘People say is it just about money and to a starting point it is about increasing benefits, but we could do things like extend free school lunches to all, we need to do more about housing,’’ he says.
‘‘Housing costs for about 15 per cent of people on benefits take up
more than 50 per cent of their benefit. More than 30 per cent of the lowest income households with children spend more than half their income on housing.’’
In conversation, Becroft speaks rapidly and passionately, but with his final words, he speaks carefully.
‘‘As the independent children’s monitor and advocate I will be, for all my worth, for as long as I have life or breath, I will be urging a focus on these children.’’