Priority 2 – Reducing child material hardship
What we mean by material hardship
Children in material hardship live in households that don’t have access to the basics. Material hardship is a non-income measure of poverty.
It is a Portfolio Target for child poverty reduction.
We measure material hardship by looking at the percentage of children living in households reporting that they can’t afford six or more of seventeen basic essential items on the Deprivation-17 index.
This includes:
- Not being able to afford two pairs of shoes
- Going without fresh vegetables often
- Not being able to pay bills on time
Why this is a priority
Material hardship directly impacts on children’s outcomes in the short term through reduced access to necessities. This can lead to poorer health and toxic stress in the household, negatively affecting children’s development and wellbeing across all six enduring outcomes.
Material hardship in childhood can negatively affect longer-term outcomes, including in adulthood.
Cognitive and social-emotional development: Poverty and hardship can negatively affect how a child’s brain develops.
School attendance and achievement: Poverty and socio-economic disadvantage are associated with lower educational achievement.
Health outcomes: Poverty and hardship are associated with worse physical and mental health in the present and in the future.
Justice outcomes, including youth and adult offending: Experiences of poverty and hardship are correlated with poorer future justice outcomes.
Too many children are experiencing material hardship
- 12.5 percent of children in New Zealand experienced material hardship in 2022/23.
- Rates of material hardship are now similar to what they were in 2017/18.
- The rising cost of living and increased housing costs have made it harder for families to afford the basics.
Material hardship is not evenly distributed across all groups of children:
- 2X higher rate amongst Māori and Pacific children than rates for all children.
- 2X higher rate amongst disabled children and children in disabled households than rates for all children.
- 3X higher rate amongst children in sole parent households than two parent households.
Children in benefit-receiving households are 3.5 times more likely to be in material hardship than children in working households. However, overall, more children in material hardship are in working households (around 55% of all children in material hardship), as there are many more children in working households than in benefit receiving households.
Current government policies and actions to reduce material hardship
Grow household incomes
- Increasing the In-work Tax Credit
- Changes to income tax thresholds
- Supporting people into employment
Assist families into stable housing
- Prioritising families in emergency housing on the social housing waitlist
- Going for Housing Growth
- Better Social Housing system investment
Reduce other household costs
- Addressing cost of living
- Ka Ora, Ka Ako | Healthy School Lunches programme
Reduce long term disadvantage
- Making progress on the Child Poverty Related Indicators
- Employment Action Plan
- Attendance Action Plan
- Changes to New Zealand Curriculum
Where we will focus to reduce material hardship
We need to take a coordinated approach to address the complex drivers of material hardship. In addition to the actions identified above, we will focus on:
Addressing additional household costs – Additional household costs impact on a household’s ability to afford basic essential items. Costs are not the same for all households, with some facing higher or additional essential costs, such as costs associated with disability.
Addressing drivers of long-term disadvantage and hardship – The drivers of long-term disadvantage and hardship are complex and take time and sustained effort to address. We will investigate opportunities to address deeper drivers of material hardship, including in relation to health, housing, education and employment.
