In the last few days a thoroughly researched report by the Brainwave Trust has summed up the evidence regarding the risks and benefits of early childhood care/education (ECE). Despite concerns that the conclusions are scaremongering and the fact that Family … Read More

The New Zealand Initiative have released the first of their three reports on poverty in New Zealand. This first report is focussed on discussing measures of poverty but also touches on factors contributing to poverty as well as some interesting … Read More

This morning on Radio NZ we see a story about a school in Auckland where parents are so poor their kids can not participate in school sporting activities. This is on the back of an OECD report released  yesterday which … Read More

Last week we heard that women earn significantly (14% to be exact) less than men. Today we heard that the gender pay gap is the same in the public sector, although it is up to 39% in some organisations. But … Read More

One response to our series on child poverty last week was that instead of giving the poor money we should force them (particularly solo Mums) to work. Commenters pointed to the tough US welfare reforms in the 1990s as an … Read More

The single most effective action we can take to improve the lives of children in poverty is to give parents money, no questions asked. In two previous articles, I’ve shown that when parents in poverty are given more money, they … Read More

OPINION: It’s not true that if giving cash to the poor means they will just spend it on “booze and ciggies”, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw. “And they say to budget your money, save your money – how can you do that … Read More