[New Zealand] 8pc of New Zealanders in 'severe hardship'

from Stuff

By PETER WILSON

Most New Zealanders have a good standard of living but 8 per cent at the bottom end of the scale suffer severe hardship, a report released today shows.

However, data for the Ministry of Social Development's report was gathered in 2004 and does not capture the impact of improved benefit levels since then and the Working for Families package.

Officials said there had been a catch-up since 2004, and linking family support to inflation from 2007 should stop the slippage.

The New Zealand Living Standards 2004 report showed 76 per cent of the population had "fairly comfortable" to "very good" standards of living, a figure which had not changed significantly since a similar survey was carried out in 2000.

The 8 per cent in the severe hardship category is an increase from 5 per cent in 2000, attributed to a drop in the real income of beneficiary families with children and an increase in average incomes that widened the gap.

The 2004 survey was the most comprehensive undertaken in New Zealand, with about 5000 families assessed on 40 indicators.

It found there were multiple reasons for good or bad standards of living including employment or the lack of it, assets, and education and saving levels.

It also discovered that "life shocks" such as marriage break-up, unplanned pregnancies, unemployment and imprisonment had a severe impact.

Marcel Lauziere, the ministry's deputy chief executive in charge of the project, said most families had the resilience to deal with one or more life shocks but there was a threshold where combined adverse events brought them crashing down.

"When you're up to seven or eight, multiple shocks have a significant impact," he said.

"What this shows is that we must have a multi-pronged approach, working across government on early intervention."

The report showed Maori and Pacific people had substantially lower living standards than the population as a whole – 40 per cent of Maori and 58 per cent of Pacific people experienced some degree of hardship compared with 19 per cent of Europeans.

It also showed that in 2000, 7 per cent of Maori and 15 per cent of Pacific people were in the severe hardship category and by 2004 that had increased to 17 per cent and 27 per cent.

Mr Lauziere said the data was "absolutely crucial" to the development of policies to deal with hardship.

The Child Poverty Action Group said the report showed the living standards of the poorest children were slipping dangerously.

"Our poorest families are being left behind," said spokeswoman Susan St John.

"The minimum wage is too low and family support has been eroded by inflation over the years." Dr St John said despite government action, many of the poorest children had been left out.

"All families with children should be consistently supported, including during hard times when parents may not be in the full-time workforce," she said.

National's welfare spokeswoman, Judith Collins, said the severe hardship category numbers were an embarrassment for Labour.

She said the Government, despite a strong economy, had fostered a culture of dependency at the expense of independence and personal responsibility.

"Labour wrongly claims to be a champion of the poor and the disadvantaged, but these results show (Prime Minister) Helen Clark's policies aren't helping break the cycle at all – in fact they're making it worse."