The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has the following spokespeople available to comment on the government's wholesale cuts to disabled people's funding.

CPAG says this is absolutely devastating for our disabled community and shows this government has no interest in tackling Aotearoa New Zealand's appalling child poverty statistics, and will further lock our most vulnerable people into poverty.

One in 8 children in New Zealand live in material hardship where they cannot afford the basics like, food, power and rent.

The rate for children with a disability or those living in a household where someone has a disability is almost double that -- almost one in four (22.3 percent) live in households experiencing material hardship, according to StatsNZ data.

CPAG fears latest cuts will push more children in to poverty, and are another blow for whānau who face acculmulative cuts following the government's move to index benefits to CPI, their cancelling of planned increases to abatement levels for Working For Families payments, and proposed cuts to the lunches in schools programme.

CPAG and other groups working on the frontline of poverty have been trying to meet with the government to inform them how bad things are for our most vulnerable children, but have so far been unable to secure to a meeting.

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