MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release

Wellington, Wednesday, 4 February 2009 Issued on the Authority of Commissioner Garth McKenzie (Territorial Commander) The Salvation Army, New Zealand Fiji & Tonga Territory

Sallies say economic policy makers must remember our most vulnerable citizens

The Salvation Army is urging the Government to take into account the human cost of economic policy or face an impending social crisis.

The Salvation Army’s latest annual state of the nation report Into Troubled Waters offers a “progress report card” on a range of social issues including housing, work and incomes, crime and punishment, and social hazards such as gambling, alcohol and drug addiction.

The report finds social progress in the past five years has been mixed but The Salvation Army is worried advances in some areas like child poverty are starting to retreat as the recession bites.

“The number of our most vulnerable people appears to be on the rise as the economic storm crosses New Zealand,” Salvation Army social policy spokesperson Major Campbell Roberts says.

“If we are to avoid a social crisis and the attendant misery and long-term fiscal and social costs, those crafting economic policy this year will need to take this fully into account.”

Rising employment in recent years and job growth-based policies, like the Working for Families tax credits, helped make significant gains in reducing child poverty, Major Roberts says.

However, little has been done to address the inadequacy of benefit levels when about two-thirds (2007 figure) of children living in poverty are part of benefit-dependent households compared to 49 per cent in 2004.

This issue is becoming critical with Treasury estimating an additional 75,000 people could be out of work by 2010, so action to reduce poverty and material hardship for a growing number of children is now a matter of urgency, Major Roberts says.

The Salvation Army report shows the number of children living in benefit-dependent households steadily fell to 206,600 (19 per cent of all New Zealand children) by 2007 but last year rose 0.2 per cent to 209,000 as the economy began to shrink.

“The reality is that some of our children are doing okay but others are facing more risk and more harm than ever before as their parents lose their jobs and their work-based benefits,” Major Roberts said.

Into Troubled Waters is available online at www.salvationarmy.org.nz

ends

© Scoop Media