This report has been prepared in response to a request from the Commission for Financial Literacy and Retirement Income for a summary of what we know about the material wellbeing of the current cohort of older New Zealanders, including identification where possible of the groups most at risk of hardship. The report also identifies data issues that limit a more detailed profiling.
Almost all the findings are drawn from publications that are in the public domain and are available on the Ministry of Social Development’s website.1 There is some new material in Section E that is not yet published elsewhere, but which is to be incorporated into a fuller whole-of-population living standards report expected to be released in 2014.
The selection and organisation of the material has been guided by the intended primary use of the information. It is a resource for the Retirement Commissioner’s retirement income policy review rather than a standard research paper.