OECD child poverty report

• Marty G
• 15 years ago
• Categories: poverty

I’ve been having a look at the OECD’s report on child poverty. A lot of the data is quite of of date and so doesn’t reflect the every important impact of Working for Families, rising minimum wage, falling unemployment, and bottom-end tax cuts have had on child poverty in the last six years.  We’re doing a lot better than we were, thanks to those Labour-led government policies. Why the hell they are using 2003 numbers when they get get the data up to 2007,  don’t know. Nonetheless, the study still has some value in comparing how we’re doing compared to other countries. It isn’t pretty reading:

• 21 of 30 in average disposable income ($17,200 US)
• 19 of 30 for children in poor homes (15%)
• 9 of 30 in educational deprivation (2.2% lack four of eight pieces of basic educational equipment)
• 17 of 27 in overcrowding (31%)
• 4 of 30 for literacy score
• 19 of 30 in literacy inequality
• 21 of 27 for youths not in employment, education or training (8.5%)
• 11 of 30 for low birth weight (6.1%)
• 20 of 30 for infant mortality (5.1 of 1000)
• 12 of 29 for breastfeeding (87.8%)
• 24 of 29 for vaccination rate – pertussis (88.6%)
• 27 of 29 for vaccination rate – measles (83.8%)
• 22 of 27 for child mortality (64 of 100,000)
• 29 of 29 for youth suicide (15.9 of 100,000)
• 16 of 30 for teenage births (23 of 1000)

I hope that the new government will keep up the good progress the Labour-led government made in these areas, as Labour called for in their press release. Unfortunately, listening to Paula Bennett yesterday on National Radio, it seems she is big on words but short on significant action where it counts – incomes, health, education. Tariana Turia gets it, repeating her party’s policies, which while expensive would certainly reduce child poverty: “GST removed from healthy foods, the in-work tax credit extended to families of the unemployed, the first $25000 of income being tax free and the minimum wage lifted to $15 an hour.” I do wonder though if she realises the government she is a part of will never take those measures.