Tens of thousands of New Zealanders over the age of 65 are experiencing material hardship and can't afford basic necessities including healthy food and clothing, a new report has found.

The Older Persons Poverty Monitor report, released on Wednesday by the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services (NZCCSS), delivered a snapshot of poverty and hardship among the country's older population.

The council said the report was the first of its kind in New Zealand, offering a baseline to measure poverty during later life.

The report showed almost 20% of New Zealanders over the age of 65 had put off dental and doctor visits due to cost, 147,000 lived in accommodation they did not own (17.25%) and 102,000 were living below 50% of mean income after housing costs (12%).

About 25,000 of New Zealanders in this age bracket were living in material hardship, or living "without the essentials."

The report defined this as having insufficient essentials to "support living, ageing and dying with dignity".

NZCCSS chief executive Alicia Sudden said the report marked a turning point in how New Zealand understands poverty in later life.

"For the first time, we can see and track the scale of poverty among older New Zealanders. What we measure is what we can change - and these first results should make us deeply concerned."

Sudden said the next step was deciding what level of hardship the country was prepared to tolerate.

"We need to draw a line on poverty in later life and decide the minimum standard of dignity every older New Zealander should be able to expect," she said.

"It should not be acceptable that tens of thousands of people reach retirement and still cannot afford healthcare, secure housing or the basic essentials of everyday life."

Women, Māori, and Pacific older people were shown to experience disproportionately higher levels of hardship.

Older Pacific communities had the highest rates of poverty in seven of the nine measures, while Māori were the second most impacted across every

measure.

Presbyterian Support Central chief operating officer Nicola Turner said the findings mirrored what front-line services were seeing across the country.

"We are seeing older people who are not eating properly and certainly cannot afford dental care, glasses, hearing aids or a taxi to a doctor. A lack of money, health status, well-being and independence can be significantly affected in the older population," she said.

"The findings from the [report] reflect what our teams are hearing from older people every day. Now we have the data and evidence that these challenges are widespread and deserve greater attention."

According to the report, many older people were experiencing loneliness, social isolation and age-based discrimination.

The report combined national data with lived experience with consultation with older New Zealanders, community organisations, researchers, service providers and NZCCSS member organisations.

Recent reporting by Stats NZ, the Ministry of Social Development, and Health NZ was incorporated into the figures.