Child poverty is going up in New Zealand — here's what a leading group wants done about it
The Child Poverty Action Group has released a manifesto calling for all political parties to work together to reduce child poverty. StatsNZ figures show the number of children living without daily essentials rose by 47,500 between 2022 and 2025. RNZ
CPAG chief executive Lyn Amos told RNZ's Morning Report that child poverty was a "political choice" and urged all parties to make policy changes. She described New Zealand as "absolutely going backwards" compared to the target the government set for 2028. RNZ
In 2018, Parliament passed a law setting a target to halve child poverty to six percent by 2028. Instead, the rate has risen to 14 percent. That means one in seven children — about 169,300 in the 2024/25 year — are living without daily essentials. CPAG At June 2025, CPAG's manifesto records nearly 170,000 children in material hardship and more than 350,000 in financially insecure households. RNZ
The burden falls unevenly. One in four tamariki Māori, one in three Pacific children, and one in four disabled children were living in material hardship. RNZ
The manifesto's lead author, emeritus professor Innes Asher, noted that most political parties agreed in 2018 to halve child poverty by 2028. Rates did fall between 2019 and 2022 after the law was passed. They have since climbed. Asher, a retired children's doctor, said the government can reverse the trend. RNZ
CPAG says poverty persists because of failures across jobs, housing, health, education, welfare and tax settings, which the group calls political choices. The manifesto estimates child poverty costs New Zealand between $13.5 and $18 billion a year in extra spending on health, education, social support, and justice that could be avoided. RNZ
CPAG's main proposal is to replace Working For Families. Working For Families is a government payment package for families with children. One part of it, called the In Work Tax Credit, only goes to families where parents are in paid work. That means families on benefits miss out. CPAG wants a single child payment that goes to all low- and middle-income children, regardless of whether their parents are working or on benefits. The Court of Appeal found in 2013 that the In Work Tax Credit discriminated against children of parents on benefits and caused material harm to families. RNZ
The broader picture is that a law passed with cross-party support in 2018 is now moving further from its targets rather than closer. Poverty rates did fall for a few years after the law was passed. But since 2022 they have gone back up. The 2028 target of six percent now requires a big drop from the current 14 percent in just two years.
The cost estimate of $13.5 to $18 billion is CPAG's way of framing the issue in dollar terms. It covers spending on health, education, social support, and justice that CPAG says could be avoided. Whether Treasury or government ministries would agree with that figure is a separate question, but it puts the argument in language the Cabinet has to engage with, not just moral claims.
Replacing Working For Families is the proposal most likely to face pushback. It is built into the tax and welfare system, and changing it would have wide-reaching effects on government spending and on which families get what. The question of whether child payments should be tied to parents working has been contentious since the In Work Tax Credit was created. The Court of Appeal's 2013 ruling did not change the system. CPAG's proposal would do what the court case could not.
With the 2028 deadline approaching and the numbers going the wrong way, the manifesto is designed to push parties into actual policy changes rather than just words. Whether any party picks up the Working For Families replacement is the real test of whether there is cross-party appetite for that kind of change once the costs become clear.
