The expert panel recommends raising the family tax credit, restarting the universal child payment, a warrant of fitness test for all rental housing in New Zealand and a food in schools programme.
Children's Commissioner Dr Russell Wills released the paper on solutions to child poverty today in Wellington, with an expert panel led by Dr Tracey McIntosh of the University of Auckland and University of Victoria School of Government professor Jonathan Boston.
Dr Wills said it was unacceptable that 270,000 children are living in poverty in New Zealand.
He said there were many reports on why child poverty is a problem, but few evidence-based solutions.
Mr Boston said there were many proposals in the report but if he were to isolate the most important, healthy homes were vital and raising the level of income of families was paramount.
"Child poverty is unacceptably high in New Zealand - it has a cost for all of us," said Mr Boston.
Dr McIntosh said New Zealanders seem to tolerate a high level of child poverty.
"As a country we seem to have a higher tolerance for children living in poverty but not for elderly," she said.
The panel have recommended a universal child payment of between $125 and $150 should be paid per week for children in the first six years of life.
The panel said many OECD countries provide a universal child payment and New Zealand had ended the payment in the late 1990s.
Mr Boston said the proposals put forward by the panel aimed to reduce poverty by up to 40 per cent in the next 10 years and severe and persistent poverty by 50 per cent.
He said the Government was not doing enough to assist young children and larger families, and assistant packages were favouring smaller families.
"We have to address the reality of low incomes," said Dr McIntosh.
Mr Boston said children living in poverty would not be the only benefactors of the recommendations, as they would benefit the wider public.
The panel said a food in schools programme was a good interim measure to make sure children were fed until the income level of their families had been raised.
Mr Boston said the panel had already had constructive meetings with the Government.
"We know they are considering some of the options," he said.
Phillippa Howden-Chapman said the University of Otago had been working on how to assess the suitability of rental housing.
"If you increase the quality of housing you reduce the cost to organisations like ACC," she said.
