News and Updates

Second set of three-year child poverty targets announced

Issue date:

The Government has today confirmed the second set of official targets to break the cycle of child poverty. They cover the 2021/22, 2022/23, and 2023/24 financial years, and set out the progress the Government intends to make towards the ten-year targets over this period.

The Government has set ten-year targets that aim to more than halve rates of measured child poverty, meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and place New Zealand alongside those countries with the lowest rates of poverty and hardship in the world.

The first three-year period set challenging targets that went beyond the average rate of progress required to reach the longer-term targets. Reporting on the first two years of the period showed that reductions have been achieved across all nine child poverty measures, with tens of thousands of children lifted out of poverty on the primary measures, and the three-year target for the after-housing-cost measure already exceeded.

While the long-term economic impact of COVID-19 will make reducing child poverty in the coming years more challenging, the new three-year targets maintain the Government’s ambition and continue progress towards the ten-year targets.

By 2023/24, the Government aims to reduce the proportion of children in:

  • low-income households on the before-housing-costs measure to 10 percent
  • low income households on the after-housing costs measure to 15 percent
  • material hardship to 9 percent.

Read the press release announcing the second set of targets

Find out more about the Child Poverty Targets

Last updated