Poverty in New Zealand

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Authors
Haigh, David
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Date
2018-12-19
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Type
Journal Article
Ngā Upoko Tukutuku (Māori subject headings)
Keyword
New Zealand
poverty
government policies
Department of Work and Income (New Zealand)
ANZSRC Field of Research Code (2020)
Citation
Haigh, D. (2018). Poverty in New Zealand, Whanake: The Pacific journal of community development, 4(2), 102–115.ISSN 2423-009X Retrieved from: http://www.unitec.ac.nz/epress
Abstract
Poverty is an important socio-political issue in Aotearoa New Zealand. The Children’s Commissioner’s Child Poverty Monitor has established the following measures of poverty: material hardship (households that go without things they need), and income poverty (where household income is less than 60% of the current median income). It was also identified that households in extreme poverty (including 80,000 children) are experiencing both material hardship and income poverty. Various policy proposals are made to government to relieve poverty in both the short and long term. Short-term measures will not involve high cost and include greater child-support payments to sole parents who are receiving a benefit. Long-term measures involve increased child-related benefits and greater commitment by government to social housing and continuing free healthcare. This paper also recognises the importance of a cultural shift in the Department of Work and Income in relation to staff treatment of benefit applicants.
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Unitec ePress
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Unitec ePress
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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