LINDSAY MITCHELL: Quarter of a million children are now dependent on welfare

It's appalling that a quarter of a million children now need an income from the state to feed, clothe and house them.

Data released under the Official Information Act shows over a quarter of a million children were dependent on welfare at December 2025.

At 31 December 2025 there were 255,300 children aged 0-17 reliant on a caregiver on a main benefit (234,429); or on an Orphan/ Unsupported Child benefit (20,871).

More than a third of all Maori children were dependent (36.5 percent) versus 16 percent of non-Maori.

Of the 57,705 births during 2025, one in five babies was welfare-dependent by year end. Dependence is established very early, often from birth. This pattern has persisted since the 1990s.

Over two thirds of the children rely on a single parent. Half of the children depending on Sole Parent Support are Maori.

For context, since December 2017 (when Jacinda Ardern made herself Minister for Child Poverty Reduction) the total under 18-year-old population has risen by 4.6 percent, whereas the number of under 18-year-olds dependent on a main benefit has risen by 31.2 percent.

Jacinda's prescription for solving child poverty was wrong.

New Zealand's 'child poverty' problem will not be solved while high numbers of children live in unemployed households. The ongoing response of raising benefit incomes and reducing the margin between work and welfare will only incentivise more people to opt for the latter. This normalises benefit dependency for children and the habit becomes inter-generational. Many of these children will spend their entire lives living on a benefit and develop an expectation of continuing this lifestyle as adults.

Chronic benefit dependency, lack of educational achievement, disproportionate use of health services, and contact with Oranga Tamariki and Corrections are all intertwined.

But perhaps the biggest tragedy is the thousands of children who are missing out on fathers. Personally, I lost my Dad last year and I miss that lifelong relationship. He was hugely influential in my life, I identified with him strongly and we understood each other. How many children are deprived of that inestimable value in their lives?

This country's approach has to change. I laid out a feasible policy here.

Let's hope at least one party will have the guts to make tackling this entrenched and worsening problem part of their election platform.

It's appalling that a quarter of a million children need an income from the state to feed, clothe and house them. These kids, and those that will inevitably follow, deserve a better chance of realising their own potential. This is still a first world country with ample opportunity for those who want to grasp it.