Our minimum wage is so low about 40 per cent of children living in poverty are not living in beneficiary families, but have low-wage-earning parents, writes Emily Keddell.

Inequality in New Zealand is rising. This is a fact. Damien Grant looks into it.

Children's Commissioner Dr Russell Wills has decided to publish his own annual stocktake of child poverty after the Govt spurned his call to publish official measures and targets.

A grim picture of hard times in the lucky country has emerged in a series of new reports on poverty, revealing a nation that welfare agencies say is splitting into two Australias.

Andrew Mexted-Bragg is trading his Audi for the bus and leaving a luxury inner-city apartment to share a flat with four other people.

Let's start with the numbers. They aren't mine. They come from a recently published Ministry of Social Development "factsheet".

"Be content with what you have". That's just one of the slogans on a mural at the Cannons Creek Four Square.

Richard Balcombe-Langridge, like many people, quite likes Bentleys. He's a fan of the Rolls Royce, too.

Just over half of voters support extending Working for Families in-work tax credits of at least $60 a week to beneficiaries.

We don't really see the street. Most of us don't even look. Kids look, as I'm about to find out, but we adults, most of us walk on by, our attention fixed on anything other than that dude over there

The idea that New Zealand has become one of the most unequal societies in the developed world is just not supported by the data, writes Brian Fallow.

Beau De Royce fears she could be forced to work on the streets if her sickness benefit is cut as part of a cull of welfare numbers.

When did this country become so mean? Did it begin in the 1980s, when greed became good and success became more about what you had than the sort of person you were?

A crackdown on beggars in Auckland has the support of police, who believe it could reduce crime and anti-social behaviour.

A Whangarei grandmother has slammed Child, Youth and Family (CYF) for dumping her two young nephews at her doorstep without providing enough money to look after them.

The number of international child abduction cases before New Zealand courts is soaring, as the cost of court action forces desperate parents to go on the run.

Paul Little says the rage with which commentators reacted to the KickStart breakfast programme provided delectable examples of hysteria.

A food-in-schools programme that dramatically improved children's attendance and behaviour in South Auckland is moving to help Glen Innes children in the east of the city.

I'll never forget the first time Steve Farrelly crossed my path. To be fair, I was warned. "You're about to meet my client," said my husband. "He's, erm ... pretty unique."

Why stop at giving kids breakfast, when there are bigger issues - like getting them through the school gate, writes Dita De Boni

The KidsCan charity plans to use money from the child poverty plan announced this week to plug holes in health services.

Mana leader Hone Harawira will seek talks with the Maori Party about his Feed the Kids bill.