MEDIA RELEASE

Thursday 10 December 2009

Third Vulnerability Report: Disturbing trends starting to emerge

“With the release of the third Vulnerability Report we are now beginning to see some disturbing trends including an increase in the numbers of New Zealand children living in benefit dependent households””, said Trevor McGlinchey the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS) Executive Officer. “The impact on New Zealand families will be felt for many years, the long term costs for New Zealand must be considered when implementing policies to support families”.

“There has also been a sharp rise in the numbers of families on the Housing New Zealand Corporation ‘A Priority’ (sever housing need) housing waiting list”, says McGlinchey. “This has risen from 154 in January 2008 to 304 families in October this year. Some providers of emergency housing are reporting that it’s not unusual for 2 or 3 families to be sharing a house or living in a garage”,.

“Service providers have been under huge stress with one agency chairperson describing the increased referrals as almost overwhelming”, said McGlinchey. “Drug and alcohol addiction rehabilitation programmes, social work support and counselling have all experienced high demand”.

 “Even though the official statistics say the economic recession is technically over, providers of social services are continuing to experience ongoing rapid increases in demand for their services. The reality for a large number of New Zealanders continues to be grim and the official measures of recession do not describe the impact on many families”, says Trevor McGlinchey. “Strong relationships with social service workers and agencies are essential for providing hope for the future for many families who otherwise would be overcome by their bleak situations”.

The Vulnerability Report shows that there is a hugely disproportionate impact for some sectors of our communities. At 14% the unemployment rate for Māori is over 3 times higher than the 4.5% rate for Pākehā.  The proportion of unemployed young people has climbed from 16% a year ago to 25% now. “Young people, particularly Māori, are our future we need to ensure all of our young people are engaged with their communities and given a positive start”, said Shaun Robinson, NZCCSS President. “It’s developing this human infrastructure that will make all of our futures better.  We are looking to the new family centred Whānau Ora initiatives to make a difference and are hopeful these policies will be rolled out to assist all New Zealand families”.

Through the regular release of these Vulnerability Reports NZCCSS wants to highlight not only the current effects of the recession on New Zealand families, but also focus on some of the long term inequities that have contributed to poverty and social injustice within our society. Vulnerability Reports will only be published on-line with printable versions downloadable from the www.justiceandcompassion.org.nz website.

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