Where Will We Live In The Future? The Unmet Housing Needs of People With Disabilities and Their Whānau
Where Will We Live In The Future? The Unmet Housing Needs of People With Disabilities and Their Whānau.
No Plan, No Budget: Two Years on From WEAG, Government Continues to Drag Its Feet
Two years on since government-appointed experts recommended a complete overhaul of our welfare system, children, families, those with disabilities ...
"I don’t use my oven" - Life Without a Liveable Income
Interviews show people receiving benefits have been largely neglected in the wake of Covid - and how that affects their mental wellbeing.
What the Annual Child Poverty Stats Tell Us
Covid-19 is no excuse for Government failure to care for children. It is, in fact, a reason to step-up efforts to ensure children are protected from ...
Does the Tail Wag the Dog?
The major Working for Families review undertaken by IRD, Treasury and MSD is taking place behind closed doors. There are no published terms of ...
International Women’s Day? How Are the Worst Off Mothers and Their Kids Doing?
Meaningful reform to WFF is well over-due. There is much unconscious bias and implicit racism in the current WFF.
Picking up the Tax Hose to Help Cool the Housing Market
The problem is clear. Monetary policy has inflated the property market with cheap money. The result has been a mushrooming wealth divide.
2020 Election Policy Scorecard
CPAG’s election scorecard shows our assessment of the efficacy of announced party policies in our election priority areas of income adequacy, housing ...
Why Child Poverty Statistics Can Be Tricky
Child poverty stats can be tricky and they're in the news a lot in the lead-up to the election; We’ve put this information together in the hope it ...
Fixing Unemployment: Social Insurance and a Job Guarantee
Michael Fletcher’s presentation on social insurance as an unemployment response for New Zealand post-Covid.
On COVID-19 Resurgence in Tāmaki Makaurau
Where is digital exclusion in the COVID19 psychosocial & mental wellbeing recovery plan?
Let’s See All Mums Get a Fair Go
This crisis has taught us a lot about ourselves and our collective strength as a community.
Helping or Harming? Compulsory Income Management in Australia and New Zealand
Imagine that during the Covid-19 lockdown you had no means to buy online goods, because your EFTPOS-like card could only be used in person at a ...
What Is to Become of Our Housing Post Covid-19?
We need to be wary of the law of unintended consequences as we contemplate what our post-Covid-19 future might look like.
New Zealand's Welfare System Fails to Recognise the Dignity of Our People - How Can We Fix It?
New Zealanders believe in justice. We care about protecting our right to a dignified and decent life. An effective welfare system is only serving its ...
In 2020 the NZ Govt Should Take a Leaf out of Alberta's Book
In 2020, the big question will be, can the Government end child poverty in Aotearoa? The answer is yes, but the steps need to be bold, and a shining ...
Dear New Zealand Government, this Christmas Families Want a Light at the End of the Tunnel
Many of us are anxious about the tally of expenditure and what that will mean for the year to come.
Government Shouldn't Sit on $7.5b Surplus while Families Need Help
Tuesday's announcement from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Finance Minister Grant Robertson about a whopping $7.5 billion surplus came as a ...
Children are Taonga, Handle their Dreams with Aroha
My teammates and I recently spent time in a classroom of children at a decile 2 school, talking about hopes and dreams, and what’s needed to achieve ...
Let's Give Kids What They Want - Their Rights
When New Zealand’s tamariki and rangatahi were consulted about wellbeing, they responded with the kind of clarity, insight and brutal honesty that my ...
Define The Relationship: DTR Work and Income-Style
Everyone, no matter how much they earn, should have the right to choose who they love and live with. But if you're a single parent on income support ...
Still Smarting from that Not-Too-Long-Ago Budget
With all the tools in our kit to finally revamp our failing social support system, the 2019 Wellbeing Budget could have been transformational for ...
Let Beneficiaries Keep More Earnings: A Letter to Jacinda, Grant and Carmel
Rather than encouraging beneficiaries to do more paid work if they can, the current thresholds have exactly the opposite effect.
Act Urgently - Change Fundamentally. The Time is Now.
There’s a line in the Executive Summary of the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) report that sums things up perfectly: “Urgent and fundamental ...
New Zealand's Disability Allowances are Failing Disabled Children
In 2013, the median payment rate for disability allowances for children in the United Kingdom was almost three times higher than in New Zealand.
Home Truths About the Tricky In-Work Tax Credit
If the income from work is not in itself an incentive, and needs to be topped up by the government to make it worth the effort, then that raises ...
Parents Aren’t Asking for the Earth, Just a Safe, Affordable Home for Their Kids
The latest announcement from Housing Minister Phil Twyford on the new Healthy Homes standards is really great news. The new standards will mean ...
Back-To-School Costs: a Looming Spiral of Debt
Single parents on low incomes are always treading water. The problem is that when we start the year facing several hundred dollars of costs, well, ...
The Recovery Phase of Christmas - Is There Really Such a Thing?
Doing Christmas ‘on the cheap’ is not as easy as many suggest it is, and often with the best of intentions those who try still end up spending more ...
The Power of Manaakitanga: The Socially-Inclusive Practice of Sharing Food Amongst High School Students
The essence of ‘manaakitanga’ is in demonstrating hospitality, showing respect and generosity and providing support for others. It is the foundation ...
Taskforce Report Has the Future Success of All Schools and Students at Its Heart
The Tomorrow’s Schools Independent Taskforce recommends system and structural changes which will require far greater ‘working together’ and will ...
Time to Fast-Forward to a Future Where Tenants Have Control of Their Housing Situations
Landlords can evict a person for lots of reasons, or for no reason. Maybe this made sense in 1986; the policy context was different. Renting was seen ...
Important Questions From an Advocate at the Coalface
In her work as an advocate who supports beneficiaries with their Work and Income (WINZ) appointments, author Pip Colgan sees many heartbreaking cases ...
World Food Day: Fill Tummies, Grow Minds and Have #Zerohunger in NZ
On World Food Day, let’s really talk about about securing #ZeroHunger schools in New Zealand where every child is nutritiously fed at every school ...
About that Winter Energy Payment...
Why some struggling families miss out on the Government's Winter Energy Payment over winter, while many over-65s not in need get it automatically?
Launch of the Greens Campaign on Welfare Reform
Congratulations to the Green Party for their initiative that calls for an overhaul of the welfare system which is no longer ‘fit for purpose’. 2018 ...
Fill a Hungry Belly or Meet Nutritional Guides? The Impossible Choices Facing Low-Income Families.
Families make ends meet in a number of ways. A common method of survival is to increase uptake of inexpensive highly-processed products. These are ...
Money Week 2018: Weathering a Perpetual Storm
‘Money week’ is like birthdays and Christmas – they are not something you look forward to if you don’t have any money.
Recognising the Vital, Unpaid Work That Secures Our Future
How much are caregivers of the young worth to an ageing society? In the years to come, a growing demographic of retired baby boomers will be evermore ...
Working for Families Is Not a Trap, It’s a Run-Down House in Need of TLC
People should be wary of recent criticism of Working for Families (WFF) tax credits as being a poverty trap. The problem is not the system itself, ...
Severe Deprivation - The Harsh Reality for 140,000 Children
Why are we deducting money that is intended for children’s basic needs, from meagre incomes, just to claw back potential child support losses that ...
Banks Blacklist Truck Vendors and Predatory Lenders. Time for the Government to Act
On 18 April, responding to Sarah Hall’s story on Newsroom about truck vendors, Kris Faafoi, the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister, said there ...
Human Rights, Housing and Child Poverty - Where Do We Stand?
How well is New Zealand doing to ensure it upholds its international obligations to human rights, especially where they relate to children?
Dilapidated Rental Homes Are a Health Hazard for Children
A good tenancy contract shouldn’t be felt or considered a privilege, it should be a right. As renters, and as parents, we should be assured of ...
Fighting for a Fairer Welfare System
Vanessa Cole, Co-ordinator for Auckland Action Against Poverty spoke at CPAG’s launch of our new report “Further fraying of the welfare safety net”, ...
A Richer New Zealand Curriculum Is Possible Without National Standards
Raising achievement is not gained by assessments which check whether a child is at a particular level. Yet testing became the overarching norm to ...
When Is MSD Going to Give Up Its Damaging and Arcane Views Towards Sole Mothers Who Repartner?
Should sole parents who are fighting just to get by, and to raise healthy children, really be considered fraudulent, if all that’s happened is they ...
When the State Turned Away: Sarah’s Story
With all the rhetoric around domestic violence and women and children it’s hard to believe that even today when women experience hardship and reach ...
It’s Money Week, Let’s Talk About Debt for Low-Income Families
CPAG talks to Robert Choy, executive officer at Ngā Tangata Microfinance about high-interest debt and its effects on low-income families.
Box-Checking Is a Game of No Responsibility
A worker at the coalface (who chooses not to be named) tells CPAG about the disparities in social service organisations across the nation, and the ...
Sick Children Will Be Helped by Healthy Homes Bill
With winter now well set in, emergency departments around New Zealand are being inundated by our most vulnerable population- our children.
Befuddling Figures Will Not House Families in Need
It’s time our Government stopped confusing the nation with its baffling numbers and vague talk of housing projects, and showed New Zealanders a real ...
Dispelling the Myths of Food Poverty
There's a mountain of research to show that when it's incredibly hard to make ends meet, it's food that takes the hit, because it's the only flexible ...
Making Sense of the Government’s Housing Numbers
Social Housing Minister Amy Adams’ claims of 72,000 social housing units by 2021 deserves special scrutiny because this number doesn’t exist in the ...
Would You Buy Your Child’s Future From This Man?
There is a world of difference between a customer and a citizen. A customer buys goods and services; a citizen is a member of a country and has ...
Will the Real Home Truths Please Stand Up?
The New Zealand Herald’s recent “Home Truths” series brought some significant insights into New Zealand’s unaffordable housing crisis. The enormous ...
Wild West in the Suburbs
The World Bank consistently ranks New Zealand as first out of 190 countries for ease of doing business, starting a business, protecting minority ...
Supporting “Hard-Working Families”?
Why do we need tax credits? Tax credits keep the whole shebang of family income afloat. Wages are now so far behind the basic costs of living that, ...
Children Deserve the Best Education, All the Time
There is something profoundly pleasing in reading of innovation and success in one of New Zealand’s low-decile schools.
The Smoke and Mirrors of Benefit Figures
The latest figures released by the Ministry of Social Development show numbers of Sole Parent Support recipients are dropping. But a lack of ...
Quality, Inclusive Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand: Under-Funded and Neglected
Quality inclusive early childhood care and education (ECCE) benefits everybody immediately and into the long term. Low quality ECCE has a negative ...
So, How Are We Making Our Investments?
Much has been said and written about 'social investment' this year, and undoubtedly even more will be made of the idea in 2017.
Targeting Single Health Issues Will Not Fix Child Poverty
Health issues arise from a range of complex environmental, social, and physical reasons. The solutions to them are rarely linear.
The Slow Demise of the Accommodation Supplement
As any long-term tenant will know, rents have moved on considerably since 2005. There are various measures for rent inflation and if some are to be ...
High School Students and Poverty: What Does It Mean to Them?
Therese Luxton of Child Poverty Action Group, visited James Cook High School in Manurewa to discuss with students what poverty is like for real New ...
From the Cradle
Magnanimity, no matter how pure hearted, is not a sustainable basis for a social welfare state. The only sustainable basis is mutual interdependence ...
The Links Between Mould, Cold and Children’s Learning
Unhealthy and insecure accommodation has adverse effects on children’s health and wellbeing, which in turn affects their learning and development.
Child Poverty - A Medical Student’s Perspective
Even if as a doctor you are doing your best while the boy is in hospital, the improvement you can make is limited by the home environment.
Can You Pick Which One of These Young People Might Be Homeless?
April 15th is Youth Homelessness Matters Day, and Lifewise and Youthline are joining forces to raise awareness about youth homelessness in New ...
I Grew up Hungry: Why I Give to Child Poverty Charities
My three sisters and I never had breakfast, and packed lunches were something mythical. They were something that other kids got out of their ...
We Must Get On the Same Page About Child Poverty Numbers
Through no fault of their own thousands of children live in households with incomes that scarcely cover the basics, least of all luxuries such as a ...
Disability funding ‘pause’ causes confusion, trauma, and disbelief