Almost 18% of Australian children under 15 are currently living in poverty. Should this trend continue, of the over 3 million children expected to be born in the next 10 years, about 550,000 will live in poverty.
Home to almost 26 million people, over the past few years Australia has reported a rising poverty rate and by 2020, almost 14% of the population was living in poverty. This runs counter to the country’s goal to halve the number of those living in poverty by 2030 and fails to contribute to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal 1 – poverty eradication.
Dire statistics
Australia needs to fundamentally change the way it identifies and supports people in disadvantage. In our latest Disrupting Disadvantage report, we show how a data-led approach can tackle the issue. Read more at https://t.co/iLDLh359uA. pic.twitter.com/U0Lmm9Q2Ob
— CEDA (@ceda_news) December 1, 2021
According to the latest report by the independent research institute, Committee for Economic Development (CEDA), the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly worsened the situation of vulnerable Australians including children with data showing that today almost one-fifth of children under 15 are affected by poverty.
Another study conducted by the University of Melbourne indicates that children growing up in poverty are 3.3 times more likely to live in poverty in adulthood compared to those growing up in relatively stable conditions.
“We are still waiting to see the full impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, but there is already evidence the pandemic has further exacerbated the financial, employment and health hardships of Australia’s most vulnerable. Unless Australia addresses these issues now, we will be entrenching the next generation of poverty and disadvantage,” said CEDA Chief Economist, Jarrod Ball.
Why are children threatened by increasing poverty?
The report’s authors indicate that the risk of poverty amongst children has increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic despite temporary emergency aid having been given to disadvantaged communities in 2020. When this assistance came to an end, health and material impacts affected vulnerable people the most.
Researchers also point out that poverty amongst children is not being appropriately addressed because local and central authorities in Australia do not measure this comprehensively or exchange information about it amongst themselves and thus the lack of data regarding the extent of the problem hampers the ability to deal with it in an effective way.
Recommendations
The authors of the report have put forward a set of recommendations to avoid the levels of child poverty increasing. They argue that the government should establish a consolidated linked national human service data asset by 2025 so that all state institutions can exchange information freely and easily. They also propose that a predictive analysis is conducted based on the data collected to deliver early intervention services to children at a higher risk of disadvantage. Better data will also allow proper policies to be designed to support vulnerable families by providing them with therapy, drug and alcohol management, and mental health programs as these can all positively impact upon the lives of the younger generations of Australians and drive them out of poverty. The researchers also stress that credible data is crucial for interventions in early childhood as this is more effective than interventions carried out in adulthood. According to the researchers, only political will is needed to address this issue in a proper and efficient way but so far the authorities have failed to demonstrate this.
