The Government is defending its record on child poverty as a Unicef report reveals the level has changed little in New Zealand while falling in similar-sized countries, Radio New Zealand reports.
The report, Children of the Recession, released today looked at the impact of the global financial crisis on child wellbeing in 41 OECD and EU countries.
It found 76.5 million children live in poverty in those 41 most affluent countries, and in 23 countries child poverty had increased since 2008.
In New Zealand, the proportion of the country's children in poverty fell only marginally, from 18.8 per cent in 2008 to 18.4 per cent in 2012. The country ranks 16th overall.
Social Development Minister Anne Tolley said New Zealand had yet to see the effects of a $500 million package aimed at children in the last budget, and a number of other initiatives are also under way.
While the Government had no target figure to reduce child poverty, reducing the number of people dependent on welfare should improve the situation, she said.
Unicef national advocacy manager Deborah Morris-Travers said the report showed governments that acted quickly at the beginning of the recession and put the right policies in place did best. “There hasn't been an explicit commitment to ending child poverty in New Zealand,” she said.