Going Without Necessities: Poverty in the Land of the Long White Cloud

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The first thing to go in households struggling for money are trips to the dentist. The second is spending on clothes and shoes. Next, families cut back on meat, perhaps buying cheaper cuts, and less of it. Local trips also go out the window after that, with families' participation in the community falling away.

Then the contents insurance gets cancelled, and families are forced to borrow to meet daily living costs. Then go trips to the doctor. This is the cascade of sacrifice poorer families experience when trying to scrape by on low incomes in an era of high housing costs.

New baseline data on child poverty is revealing new insights into the lives of the 133 in every 1000 children who live in households experiencing "material deprivation", which is measured by the enforced lack of six or more of 17 essentials for a living a decent life in New Zealand. (see also pn336, "Has Child Poverty Really Increased under Labour? Latest Stats.")

Roughly 58 in every 1000 children are living in really miserable family circumstances, in households scraping by without nine or more of the 17 essentials, although until next year when more households will be surveyed to gather the data, giving more certainty that the figures accurately represent the proportion of children experiencing material hardship.

Source 
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/111750300/cascade-of-want-the-essentials-poor-families-give-up-first?cid=app-android