COVID-19: Keeping kids front and centre
Our research demonstrates how Government neglect in the wake of Covid-19 is needlessly increasing inequity, and financial and housing-related distress for families, children and young people.
On this page you can read material CPAG has produced related to inequality in the time of Covid.
SERIES: Income support in the wake of Covid-19 (2020-21)
In late 2020, Associate Professor Louise Humpage at the University of Auckland collaborated with CPAG, Auckland Action Against Poverty, and FIRST Union to conduct a study called ‘Income support in the wake of Covid-19’. The research sought to understand the experiences of those on the new Covid-19 Income Relief Payment and those on main benefits in the context of Covid-19-related changes.
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Survey (October 2020)
In this report, the authors analysed survey responses from those on core benefits and those receiving the Covid-19 Income Relief Payment.
The authors found that despite the $25 increase in March 2020, incomes were still too low for many income support recipients to meet their basic costs, particularly among households with children.
Read the full report Income support in the wake of Covid-19: survey (PDF) here
Interviews (April 2021)
In part-two of Income support in the wake of Covid-19, the authors analysed follow-up interviews with core benefit recipients about their experiences of receiving income support through the Covid period.
They found that Covid-19 and associated lockdowns had a significant, negative impact on the ability of benefit recipients to meet costs, due to higher food prices, panic buying, and delivery costs.
Some minor improvements in Work and Income culture and processes were noted in the wake of the first lockdown but, overall, benefit recipient experiences remained overwhelmingly negative. These issues all led to high levels of stress and a situation where benefit recipients felt they needed a trained advocate just to engage on a day-to-day basis with Work and Income — or to avoid Work and Income to protect their mental health.
Read the full report Income support in the wake of Covid-19: interivews (PDF) here.
REPORT: Sheltering our children from COVID-19 fallout (August 2020)
The CPAG report " Sheltering our children from COVID-19 fallout: New Zealand must raise incomes for the financially vulnerable instead of cutting their incomes on 1 Oct 2020 as planned" shows core entitlements for families receiving benefits were below primary poverty lines.
"The Winter Energy Payment ends this week for those receiving benefits and NZ Superannuation, and because the payment was doubled this year for COVID-19 relief, the income drop is particularly sharp," said Child Poverty Action Group researcher Janet McAllister. "Yet the financial uncertainty of COVID continues, and incomes for whānau and families on benefits were already too low even before COVID.
Read the full report Sheltering our children from COVID-19 fallout (PDF) here
A scenario for changes in child poverty rates from the COVID-19 recession (background paper, June 2020)
This paper offers a scenario of possible numbers of children living in relative poverty as a result of the expected COVID-19 recession. The purpose for creating this scenario was to gain some appreciation of the possible impacts of this recession on the wellbeing of New Zealand’s children.
As a scenario it is just an assessment of what might plausibly happen and not a forecast. There are in fact huge uncertainties around the extent of the COVID-19 recession and the nature of the subsequent recovery.
These uncertainties as well as the duty of care we have for our children make it important to be mindful that the impacts of recessions do not fall evenly or fairly. CPAG argued that as a consequence, we need to plan for responses which minimise negative impacts on children. To help us do that we need some understanding of the extent of the challenge we are facing around who New Zealand’s poorest children are and how many they are. This scenario is an attempt at providing some of this understanding.
SERIES: Food insecurity in a time of COVID-19 (2019-2020)
In late 2019, Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) launched a series of papers to highlight the problems children face living in food insecure households. The final papers were released in 2020 after Covid-19 emerged and focused on the impact of the pandemic on food security for families.
Read: Part 6: An outbreak of hunger: the spread of food insecurity in a time of Covid-19, by CPAG researcher Caitlin Neuwelt-Kearns, MA(Hons). This paper focuses on the challenges that New Zealanders faced – and continue to face – to provide enough, appropriate food to feed themselves and their families as a result of the Covid-19 crisis.
Read Part 7: We can build the Zero Hunger Generation in our new COVID-19 World, by Becky Little and Laurie Wharemate-Keung (MNZM) from Eat Right Be Bright and Feed the Need. This paper explains that is is imperative to implement the Free and Healthy School Lunch Programme in the right way to create the foundation for the Zero Hunger Generation.
View the full Aotearoa, land of the long wide bare cupboard series