Additional 200,000 children may be facing hardship

More than 200,000 children may be pushed into intermittent hardship by the coronavirus crisis.

Children’s Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft told Stuff he has reconsidered a ‘‘remarkably accurate’’ estimate of how many children faced adversity in New Zealand, and it appears as many as 40 per cent might at times be confronting significant disadvantage due to the crisis.

Becroft’s bleak forecast was a rough calculation, as official child poverty statistics would not be collated for months.

The Labour-led Government had committed to reducing child poverty before the crisis.

Figures released in February showed a marginal decrease in children living below the poverty line and a slight increase in children living in material hardship.

Covid-19 has since brought on a recession, 53,000 more people have taken up the unemployment benefit, employment fell by a record 37,500 jobs in April, and a survey showed one in 10 households have failed to pay the rent or mortgage.

Becroft said that before the crisis an accurate way of describing child poverty in New Zealand was that 70 per cent of children lived well, 20 per cent struggled with adversity intermittently, and 10 per cent faced chronic poverty.

‘‘At the start of Covid ... the burden and stress was disproportionately shared and I think it got harder for the 10 per cent, and harder for the 20 per cent,’’ he said.

‘‘But, we actually think now that those percentages are changing for children . . .

‘‘We wouldn’t be surprised if that 20 per cent group expanded to 30 [per cent] or 35 [per cent], even 40 per cent, who were facing some pretty significant family disadvantage that they hadn’t had before, through unemployment.’’

New Zealand has 1.1 million children below the age of 18, meaning an increase of 20 per cent living in intermittent poverty could equate to 220,000 children.

Becroft’s estimate was based on reports from non-governmental organisations, his office’s own survey of school children, and public statistics. He would like to see official statistics produced sooner.

He was pushing for the in-work tax credit to be expanded to all families with children, even those unemployed, giving them an extra $72 a week, which he said would cost about $500 million a year.

The Government has worked to quickly legislate an ‘‘income relief’’ payment scheme this week, which will pay $490 a week to people who have lost or who lose their job due to Covid-19 – a rate double that of the standard Jobseeker Support benefit.

National Party child poverty spokesman Alfred Ngaro said the Government needed to create job opportunities for families living in poverty, before looking to more targeted solutions.

He said the Wha¯nau Ora funding model, which has independent commissioning agencies allocate funding to Ma¯ori health providers, had been effective but the Government had moved away from exploring such innovation.