More than a quarter of disabled children live in poverty

On 26 February 2026, Stats NZ released Child Poverty Statistics for the year ended June 2025. 

This is the first time statistics were derived from the Household Income and Living Survey (HILS), which has replaced the Household Economic Survey (HES) from the 2024/2025 year onwards. We’ve summarised the data for disabled people.

Over 1 in 4 disabled children were experiencing material hardship

Child poverty statistics provides data on the number, prevalence rates, and characteristics of children living in low-income households and children living in households experiencing material hardship, including data for disabled children. These statistics are used to measure progress and assess compliance under the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018.

Child poverty statistics - Stats NZ external URL

As defined in the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018, there are 3 primary measures of child poverty and 6 supplementary measures.

The primary measures are as follows:

• low income: less than 50% of the median equivalised disposable household income (without deducting housing costs) for the financial year (measure a)
• low income: less than 50% of the median equivalised disposable household income after deducting housing costs for the base financial year (measure b)
• material hardship (a household that lacks 7 or more of the 18 items on the MH-18 index) (measure c).

For information about median equivalised disposable household income, read About the data.

Data for the year ended June 2025 shows that:

• 13.3% of disabled children (15,800 disabled children) were estimated to be living in households with low income (measure a) before housing costs, compared with 12.7% of non-disabled children (121,200 non-disabled children). These differences were not statistically significant.
• 19.9% of disabled children (23,600 disabled children) were living in households with low income after housing costs were deducted (measure b), compared with 17.4% of non-disabled children (166,500 non-disabled children). These differences were also not statistically significant.
• 26.9% of disabled children (31,900 disabled children) were living in households with material hardship based on the MH-18 index (measure c). This rate is significantly higher than the rate for non-disabled children (12.7%, 120,900 children).  

Measurement changes mean that material hardship statistics for disabled children and children in disabled households for the year ended June 2025 cannot be compared to previous years.

For more information, read Time-series impacts from changes to the measurement of disability and hardship.

Although there were no statistically significant differences between disabled children and non-disabled children for the income-based primary measures, it should be noted that these measures may not fully capture the experiences of disabled children and children in disabled households because they do not take into account additional costs that disabled households often face.

For this reason, material hardship provides a more robust measure of poverty for disabled children and disabled households as it captures information about families who are unable to meet basic needs because they cannot afford them.

Children in disabled households experience higher rates of poverty 

The Household Income and Living Survey (HILS) captures information about disabled children as well as children in disabled households. Disabled households are defined as households where at least 1 person is disabled.

There are 6 supplementary measures in addition to the 3 primary measures of child poverty. These measures look at low-income households with less than 60% of the median equivalised disposable household income. Of these, 4 measures showed worse outcomes for children in disabled households than those in non-disabled households. 

• Children in disabled households were 4.5 times as likely to be experiencing severe material hardship compared with children in non-disabled households. Severe material hardship is defined as a household which lacks 10 or more items out of 18 on the MH-18 index.
• Over a quarter of children in disabled households (25.9%) were living in low-income households (less than 60% of the financial year’s median equivalised disposable household income before housing costs were deducted). This rate is significantly higher than the rate for children in non-disabled households (19.8%).
• After housing costs were deducted, the percentage of children in disabled households living in low-income households was even higher at 34.6%. This is significantly higher than the rate for children in non-disabled households (27.9%).
• Children in disabled households were also 3.3 times as likely to be living in a household experiencing both low income and material hardship, compared with children in non-disabled households. 

Time-series impacts from changes to the measurement of disability and hardship

As part of the transition from the Household Economic Survey (HES) to the Household Income and Living Survey (HILS), changes were made to:

• the collection of material wellbeing data
• the measurement of material hardship
• the questions used to derive disability status.

Key changes include:

• improvements to the wording of disability questions
• use of the updated MH-18 index which replaces the DEP-17 index.

The combination of these changes means that material hardship rates by disability status should not be compared between HES and HILS. As a result, material hardship rates for the year ended June 2025 cannot be compared to previous years and a new time series has begun from this date. 

For more information about these changes, read About the transition from the Household Economic Survey to the Household Income and Living Survey - Stats NZ external URL .

About the data

Key data terms from the Household Income and Living Survey

Household equivalised disposable income is household income adjusted for the size and composition of the household. The median equivalised disposable household income is the midpoint income level. Households are considered to have low income if their equivalised disposable income is less than 50% of this midpoint level.

For more information on how this is calculated as part of measuring child poverty in New Zealand, read How we measure child poverty in the Household Income and Living Survey - Stats NZ external URL

For data collected using the HILS, a household that lacks 7 or more of the 18 items on the MH-18 index is defined as being in material hardship. Examples include:

• unable to afford a computer or internet at home, because of the cost
• having to put up with feeling cold, to keep costs down
• unable to afford an unexpected $500 expense, without borrowing
• not having a good bed to sleep in
• putting off doctor’s visits, to keep costs down.

For more information about the material hardship index, read Measuring child poverty: Material hardship in the Household Income and Living Survey - Stats NZ external URL

Identifying disabled people in the Household Income and Living Survey 

The HILS uses the Washington Group Enhanced Short Set (WGSS Enhanced) of questions to identify disabled adults, and questions based on the Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM) to identify disabled children:

• People aged 15 or over are disabled if they have serious difficulty with at least 1 of the following:
  • seeing (even with glasses or contact lenses)
  • hearing (even with hearing aids)
  • walking (without the use of equipment or assistance)
  • manual dexterity
  • upper body strength
  • personal care such as washing and dressing
  • communicating
  • remembering or concentrating (due to a long‑term condition or health problem)
  • anxiety
  • depression.
• Children aged 5 to 14 are disabled if they have serious difficulty with at least 1 of the following:
  • seeing (even with glasses or contact lenses)
  • hearing (even with hearing aids)
  • walking (without the use of equipment or assistance)
  • personal care such as feeding or dressing themselves
  • communicating
  • learning
  • remembering
  • concentrating
  • accepting change
  • controlling their own behaviour
  • making friends
  • anxiety
  • depression.
• Children aged 2 to 4 are disabled if they have serious difficulty with at least 1 of the following:
  • seeing (even with glasses)
  • hearing (even with hearing aids)
  • walking (without the use of equipment or assistance)
  • manual dexterity
  • communicating
  • learning
  • playing
  • controlling their own behaviour.
• Children under 2 years old are not assessed for disability.

Washington Group Enhanced Short Set (WGSS Enhanced) external URL

Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM) external URL