An increase in child poverty

Posted Oct 19, 2016 in News

Research recently released by leading welfare bodies shows that more children are living below the poverty line in Australia today than there have been in the past decade.

The report on poverty is the fifth of its kind to be released by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales. Measuring the rate and profile of poverty in Australia from 2013-2014, the new report provides insight into the lives of the many Australians living below the poverty line.

Despite Australia’s strong economic performance and relative prosperity, 13.3% of the population – almost 3 million people – live below the internationally-accepted poverty line. Many of those living in poverty are children under the age of 15 – 731,300 of them, in fact.

“In 2013-14, 17.4% of all children were living in households experiencing poverty, with the corresponding figures being 40.6% for children in lone parent households and 12.5% for children in couple households when using the 50% poverty rate,” the report states.

Child poverty in Australia increased by 2 percentage points over the decade 2003-04 to 2013-14. Since 2012, when many single parents were affected by changes to welfare, the rate of poverty for lone parents increased from 36.8 to 40.6%.

“In single-parent families, four children in ten now live in poverty,” says David Morawetz of the Australian Communities Foundation (Social Justice Fund) on page 23 of the report. “After 25 years of uninterrupted economic growth, we can do better than this!”

The research included in the report also looked at other age groups, gender, family types, income sources, employment, and social security payment types in those living below the poverty line.

ACOSS Chief Executive Cassandra Goldie said the research showed persistent and entrenched poverty across the community. Writing in the introduction to the report, Cassandra said:

“We need to shift the mindset that poverty is a reflection of the individual, and instead view eradicating poverty as a shared responsibility.”

Uniting Church SA congregations, faith communities and organisations often engage with and support families who are “doing it tough”, many of whom may be living below the poverty line. Would you like to share a story about a program or event your church has held to help address this community need? Or have something else to say on the topic of poverty in Australia? Comment below or send an email to Turn on Javascript!

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