July 28, 2021
PM defends child poverty reduction effort despite Covid blip
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is defending work on reducing child poverty despite a new report claiming the number of children living in poverty has increased by 10 percent because of the Covid pandemic.
Child Poverty Action Group says an additional 18,000 children were probably pushed into poverty in the 12 months to March 2021, and it would have been worse without the collective efforts of iwi, hapū, community organisations, schools, and whānau.
It slated what it called Government neglect and problems with the design of Covid-19 relief that meant Māori and Pacific applicants were much less likely than Pākehā to be awarded payments.
Ms Ardern agrees the help of iwi, hapū and other non-government elements was critical, but the Government played its part.
"We thought we were going to get unemployment up around10 percent plus. We have not experienced that. Also, the extra funding we put straight off the bat to increase general benefit rates to try to again acknowledge those hardest hit were our most vulnerable, and of course what we did in the last Budget – we have made moves to support whānau through Covid but we haven't done it alone," she says.
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