Poverty is a serious problem in New Zealand, especially among children. The demographics in these statistics are strongly leaning towards the native Maori population. To be in poverty means to experience hunger and food insecurity, reduced life expectancy, poor health outcome, debt, and unaffordable or bad housing (NZCCSS). According to New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, there are approximately 622,000 people in poverty in the country, which is about one in seven households. This includes around 230,000 children. Of the Maori population, nearly one third experience severe hardship or poverty. This is a significant statistic, because that’s a huge percentage, about every one in three people. There have been a few proposed ideas
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Although they make less money, research has shown that people on low incomes are generally good at budgeting. This properly makes sense because they have to be, or else they wouldn’t be able to survive. People with six figure incomes are the ones seeking out budget advisors. It is also interesting to note that the people with the highest income owed the most on their credit cards. Debt is a not so surprising issue for those in poverty, but the average household is struggling as well with the debt being 59% of disposable income in 1991 to 154% in 2014. To conclude, the low incomes are a huge factor to the cause for poverty. Studies have shown that increasing incomes betters the outcome for the themselves and their children, with New Zealand’s child poverty also being an issue on the …show more content…
These strategies include making the housing affordable for lower income families, closing the wage inequality gap, and working to fix child poverty amongst younger children. An Expert Advisory Group recommended a “two-pronged” approach to reducing child poverty (Boston, 2014). It emphasized the need to raise incomes of poorer families, and improve the complicated housing situation as well as introduce more available social housing. They also suggested a detailed approach to redesigning the tax-welfare system. There are a few challenges in implanting any strategy to solve the poverty crisis; generating enough money to support the strategy, and gathering enough political support to make it happen. Currently, New Zealand is lacking the political support to fund these ideas (Boston, 2014). Boston makes a note in the article stating that countries who are largely homogeneous on grounds of ethnicity and religion have been more productive in alleviating child poverty as well as poverty, compared to ethnically diverse and structurally different like the US are less likely to come to a multi-party agreement to sustain any anti-poverty
Although they make less money, research has shown that people on low incomes are generally good at budgeting. This properly makes sense because they have to be, or else they wouldn’t be able to survive. People with six figure incomes are the ones seeking out budget advisors. It is also interesting to note that the people with the highest income owed the most on their credit cards. Debt is a not so surprising issue for those in poverty, but the average household is struggling as well with the debt being 59% of disposable income in 1991 to 154% in 2014. To conclude, the low incomes are a huge factor to the cause for poverty. Studies have shown that increasing incomes betters the outcome for the themselves and their children, with New Zealand’s child poverty also being an issue on the …show more content…
These strategies include making the housing affordable for lower income families, closing the wage inequality gap, and working to fix child poverty amongst younger children. An Expert Advisory Group recommended a “two-pronged” approach to reducing child poverty (Boston, 2014). It emphasized the need to raise incomes of poorer families, and improve the complicated housing situation as well as introduce more available social housing. They also suggested a detailed approach to redesigning the tax-welfare system. There are a few challenges in implanting any strategy to solve the poverty crisis; generating enough money to support the strategy, and gathering enough political support to make it happen. Currently, New Zealand is lacking the political support to fund these ideas (Boston, 2014). Boston makes a note in the article stating that countries who are largely homogeneous on grounds of ethnicity and religion have been more productive in alleviating child poverty as well as poverty, compared to ethnically diverse and structurally different like the US are less likely to come to a multi-party agreement to sustain any anti-poverty