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Download AudioSave the Children says more needs to be done to protect children with intellectual disabilities – including from a Māori perspective.
Advocacy director Jacqui Southey says a report from IHC shows a system-wide failure across Aotearoa.
It’s shocking the average household income of children with disabilities is $34,000 compared to the $40,600 average household income for other children, and one in five are living in overcrowded or damp and moldy homes.
A quarter of disabled children are likely to live in the most deprived areas of the country, and if the child is Māori or Pasifika this increases to 44 percent.
Jacqui Southey says Save the Children is writing to the ministries of Education, Health and Social Development.
“All of those ministries have a role in upholding the rights of tamariki with intellectual disabilities and supporting their needs and it shows the absolute need for Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority because tamariki Māori with intellectual disabilities feature very poorly in these statistics so there absolutely needs to be a dedicated body looking after the rights and needs of intellectually disabled tamariki,” she says.
Ms Southey says they are asking the new Government to lift the child disability allowance which is just $56 a week.
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