THREE in 20 children under the age of 15 are living in poverty in the Illawarra and South Coast, according to a new report.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Shadow minister for the Illawarra Ryan Park said the “alarming” figures compiled by the NSW Parliamentary Research Service showed the need for more support services for the region’s youth.
The report, Child Disadvantage in NSW, revealed 10,363 – or 15.09 per cent – of the region’s under-15s were living in poverty based on the latest available figures collected in 2011-12.
The Illawarra South Coast did fare better than the regions with the highest child poverty rates, like the Far West (22.45 per cent) and Northern Rivers (21.61). However the figure of 15.09 per cent was above the NSW average of 13.80 per cent and higher than areas like the Hunter (13.66 per cent) and Southern Highlands (13.79).
“What’s most concerning to me is that we’ve got young people who are obviously slipping through the cracks in our region,” Mr Park said. “It’s a region that’s going through a difficult period economically and people are doing it tough so the support services we have available for the region’s most vulnerable – our children – need to be well-resourced and well-funded.”
However, Mr Park said, the release of the findings comes in the wake of controversial funding cuts to at least three specialist women’s accommodation service providers in the Illawarra.
Mr Park said research indicated that poverty could have a detrimental long-term effect on a child.
“Research shows that children living in poverty generally have lower educational outcomes as their opportunity and priority for education is not great, as their parents are mainly concerned with keeping a roof over their heads,” he said.
“They usually have lower health outcomes and lower social and economic outcomes also, which means these people have a lifetime of challenges ahead of them.”
The report found a household, or person, to be in poverty if their after-tax income was less than half of the median after-tax incomes of all households or persons in Australia. It revealed that NSW child poverty rates dipped from 11.5 per cent in 2000-01 to 10.4 in 2005-06, only to rise to 13.8 per cent in 2011-12.
