Beneficiaries falling
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- Date published:
1:59 pm, January 21st, 2015 - 12 comments
Categories: benefits, class war, national, welfare -
Tags: beneficiaries, beneficiary bashing
The number of Kiwis on benefits has fallen recently, and of course the Nats were quick (last week) to trumpet this as good news.
If numbers were falling because of a booming (green!) economy then I would agree with them. But there’s no evidence that is the case, and Labour were right to raise questions (see also TDB).
What we do know for sure is that National have created an environment for beneficiaries that is so nasty and so distorted, that doctors are being advised to consider welfare a “debilitating drug“. Make a system punitive enough and of course the numbers using it fall.
Where are those who have been “moved off” benefits going to? Perhaps the following recent headlines give us some hints:
Auckland homelessness: Rough sleepers tally doubles
Demand high at Auckland City Mission
Auckland beggars: ‘Don’t judge us’
AUDIO: HOW DO WE DEAL WITH AN INCREASING NUMBER OF BEGGARS ON THE STREETS?
Hamilton plan to ban rough sleeping
Tough times blamed for surge in food parcel demand
Big demand puts pressure on foodbank
Kiwi kids face school year without the essentials
No cause to celebrate.
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Good post r0b
Sadly as more people drop and then seek help from their fellows and fellowesses the more some will stiff-arm-fend them and say they can’t tell the difference between real need and fake need and that beggars, the homeless, and those really struggling are scammers trying to take the hard earned change from their new trouser pockets.
+1 excellent post r0b, succinct picture of how completely we are being failed by this govt, that they are consumate liars, and that their idiology is at base cruel.
Good comment too marty.
It’s like saying that if a hospital is carrying out less operations it means that people are healthier.
It could just mean they have a guard at the door who won’t let you in to apply to go on to the waiting list for treatment if you don’t have the correct ID.
I think they call that a “waiting list,” sadly.
Bah. Hit send before brain work.
I think that’s WHY they call it a waiting list.
The governments numbers on how many are on the current hospital waiting lists is just a sham also. The number of people wanting surgery did not decline, just the length of the list. The government has set up rules that basically force hospitals to keep people off those lists or they will be financially penalised for having a long waiting list.
Agreed. One of my partner’s parents was awaiting surgery, but every time he was within a few months of it, he was knocked back and knocked back, until he was eventually instructed to re-apply for inclusion.
My partner was on a waiting list to see the local sleep clinic, and was eventually knocked off because it was non-urgent and doesn’t impact her work. (Apparently, drifting off while working on a conveyor belt doesn’t impact your work.)
you also forgot shooting and ram raids at winz offices
There is a very nasty culture in WINZ which has worsened recently. They have people employed to call clients and encorage them to drop their appeals. National also stacks the review boards with party hacks. They do not instruct doctors how to fill out medical certicates and if asked to will not. This regime is Orwellian and I have asked David Cunliffe to investigate the branch concerned.
I would suspect that many clients on Job Seeker allowance might have moved over to Studylink.
We have a very sick society when those in the most need of help choose not to seek that to which they are entitled through fear.
I know first hand that there are many young people who are unemployed but who choose not to go to WINZ, because it is just too much hassle. How do I know this? Because one lives with me and I know of her friends in the same situation. These are not uneducated or irresponsible young people, they are intelligent, able bodied, perfectly employable young people, but there are just no jobs. End of story. Of 32,000 jobs advertised on line there are 6+ times that number seeking employment. Instead these young people, rely on their friends and relations, dumpster dive, or beg. This is not the society I grew up in. It is not the New Zealand I want for my children or grandchildren. It is a National disgrace.
For the Nats to crow about this, as though this is some sort of achievement, is simply disgusting. They have no shame, they are completely and utterly without morals or sensibility. It is an appalling state of affairs.
This time of year is seasonal work, so some are going off benefits into those dead end jobs. As soon as the season is over and the numbers rise again. Also once the season is over they will be forced to jump through all sorts of hoops to get back on the benefit such as multiple seminars that will see their benefit halved if they miss attending. God help them if they tried to save any of the money they made while working as that will severely affect what extra benefits they can claim.
This government loves to throw out numbers-without-context and let the public assume that the dots join up the way they should.
On the other end of the scale I remember English and Joyce in the election campaign talking about the record numbers of young people entering university and getting degrees – as though this government has valued and supported higher education (instead of taking credit for the natural effects of population growth and higher expectations from employers).