More than 550,000 Kiwis are experiencing hardships in multiple areas of life, says Government research group

About half of New Zealand's 106,000 single-parent families meet the definition for multiple disadvantage, over three times more than any other group. Photo/ 123rf

More than half a million Kiwis are experiencing hardship in three or more areas of life and single-parent families are doing things toughest, government research has found.

Superu, a government agency focusing on improving the lives of families and children, released the findings today.

For the first time, the researchers sought to define a measure of "multiple disadvantage" for families, using indicators from the 2014 General Social Survey and input from a reference group with representation from eight government agencies.

The survey only captured adults, rather than the entire New Zealand population, which Superu's data reflected.

The agency hopes to use this information to figure out which kinds of families are most likely to experience which combination of problems, and recommend adjustments about the provision of social services accordingly.

Anyone experiencing difficulty in three or more of the areas of education, health, income, housing, material well-being, employment, safety and social connectedness, was defined by researchers as having a "multiple disadvantage".

Superu deputy chief executive Vasantha Krishnan said the research into the patterns of multiple disadvantage illustrated how social services supporting people who have multiple issues needed to take into account how those issues can be interconnected.

"For example we found that half of those with a housing disadvantage also had two or more issues that they need support with."

While the researchers found most Kiwi adults and their children (82 per cent), lived life free of disadvantage, 12 per cent, about 588,000 people, were experiencing disadvantage in three or more areas of life.

Single-parent households were the worst off of any kind of family unit, with about half of New Zealand's 106,000 single-parent families meeting the definition for multiple disadvantage, over three times more than any other group.

Three quarters struggled with income, more than any other group, and about half struggled with employment, again at a much higher rate than other family types.

Only 12 per cent of single parents reported no disadvantage in any of the eight areas.

By contrast, more than half of couples under 50, 42 per cent of couples with at least one child and about 35 per cent of couples where one or both were over 50 showed no disadvantages in any areas.

The measure was an attempt by Superu to measure social inequality by recognising that understanding just one aspect of someone's life is not enough to understand how they are faring overall.

Where problems were commonly linked, like housing and income in the case of couples with young children, it was possible wraparound or integrated services should be used.

Problems in one area are often connected with those in another, for example poor housing impacted people's health.

This meant resolving one issue usually depended on resolving other issues as well, Superu said in its report.

Older couples were more likely to experience disadvantage in education and health life areas, while for younger families disadvantage in housing and material well-being life areas was more common.

Some life domains are more likely to be in disadvantage across all the family types.

Education, health and income were the most common while employment, connectedness and safety were the least common.

"Initiatives that promote the development of social networks and community connections will become increasingly important as our population ages," Krishnan said.