benefits

Categories under benefits

Suffer the children

Written By: - Date published: 8:26 am, September 13th, 2012 - 17 comments

Over 2,200 children, according to the Government’s estimates, will end up living in households with their already meager benefit incomes cut in half under National’s plan to punish families who can’t afford to or don’t want to send their children to supposedly voluntarily early childhood education. I’ll give Bill English credit – he at least looked sick as he defended a policy of starving kids.

Crackdown on Working for Families children

Written By: - Date published: 10:49 am, September 12th, 2012 - 13 comments

Families will lose half their Working for Families payments if they don’t put their kids in ECE or make sure they have the Well Child checks, under reforms to be announced by Paula Bennett the next time National needs a distraction from its failed economic management. ‘When you’re getting public money, the government can demand anything of you: even if it isn’t compulsory and even if you can’t afford it,’ said Bennett.

On good and bad welfare

Written By: - Date published: 6:31 am, September 12th, 2012 - 248 comments

So the government is announcing the “lifetime cost” of social welfare payments today to soften the ground for cracking down on beneficiaries.

By coincidence they’re also in the process of rushing through changes to the emissions trading scheme that will cost the taxpayer billions of dollars in corporate welfare.

ImperatorFish: Bennett Announces Welfare Crackdown

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, September 6th, 2012 - 17 comments

People of Swedish descent who engage in acts of treason while dressed as nuns will no longer be eligible to receive welfare, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett announced today.

Trouble? Re-announce a distraction…

Written By: - Date published: 6:52 am, September 6th, 2012 - 232 comments

I see Paula Benefit is up to her old tricks again. As the government desperately wants to be doing something other than not attending huis over water rights, it’s up to Paula to pull a benefit bash. But she’s obviously run out of ideas so now we’re re-announcing the old bene-bashes.

Cone of Silence?

Written By: - Date published: 1:09 pm, September 3rd, 2012 - 101 comments

A couple of weeks back I wrote a post offering Shearer, Robertson or Pagani an opportunity to justify their (more or less) blanket attack on beneficiaries. At the time, I didn’t realise Pagani had been banned from ‘the standard’ for (from memory) being an idiot . So, okay – he’s not able to respond via […]

Child Poverty to Increase; Key won’t care

Written By: - Date published: 1:22 pm, August 29th, 2012 - 8 comments

The Children’s Commissioner’s expert group has recommended that things must be done about Child Poverty, and made very specific suggestions as to what should be done, including a universal child payment for under 6s.

John Key’s response to the indepth analysis of a bunch of our finest minds and Phil O’Reilly: “Dopey.”

A quick question

Written By: - Date published: 11:02 am, August 29th, 2012 - 81 comments

Bennett (playing the distraction card) is pushing her drug testing policy again. I have a question for the supporters of this policy which remains unanswered…

Child hardship rise a “bloody disgrace”

Written By: - Date published: 11:05 am, August 24th, 2012 - 60 comments

David Shearer is right. The rise in inequality under National, shown by the latest Household Incomes report from MSD, is a bloody disgrace. Good on Shearer for his robust and instinctive response. Now we look forward to seeing it reflected in the outcomes from the policy work that is going on behind the scenes.

We are all beneficiaries

Written By: - Date published: 9:04 am, August 23rd, 2012 - 85 comments

Deborah Russell’s piece in the Dominion Post sets out some constructive thoughts on welfare.

Drug testing beneficiaries; yeah that’s the problem

Written By: - Date published: 2:49 pm, August 17th, 2012 - 66 comments

I could hardly believe my ears this morning when I heard about Paula Bennett’s plan to drug test beneficiaries and cut their benefits if they fail.  Yeah that’s the problem that’s preventing people from finding work.  Drugs.  Not the 6.8 percent unemployment rate (and it’s higher in the provinces).   It’s hard to imagine a […]

To the Back Teeth. And Beyond

Written By: - Date published: 9:44 am, August 17th, 2012 - 141 comments

Pagani wrote it. Robertson cleared it. And Shearer uttered it. To summarise; those living by sickness entitlements are probably dodgy b’stards. Nice. Before I go on, I should be clear that this post isn’t some insightful fiction. This is the reality of getting by with a sickness benefit.

Frankly Speaking: Identifying a hypocrite in three easy steps

Written By: - Date published: 11:13 am, July 31st, 2012 - 103 comments

Many of those who participate in the comments here at The Standard also run their own excellent blogs. We regularly feature No Right Turn and Imperator Fish Today we’re reposting (with permission) pieces from two other blogs that attracted some attention in Open mike recently. First up here’s Frankly Speaking…

Rorts

Written By: - Date published: 2:14 pm, July 23rd, 2012 - 59 comments

One law for the rich, another for the poor.

$444m for road consultants, $128m out of poor kids’ mouths

Written By: - Date published: 7:33 pm, July 18th, 2012 - 69 comments

Never let the Nats tell you that they’re making responsible cuts in tough times. When the Greens tried to amend the social welfare bill currently before Parliament to ensure no kids would “unduly suffer”, National vetoed it saying that would eliminate $128m of the savings National’s planning to make. Get that? National’s welfare reforms take $128m from poor kids.

NRT: Confirmed: Bennett made it up

Written By: - Date published: 10:48 am, July 13th, 2012 - 10 comments

Social Development Minister Paula Bennett caused outrage when she suggested somehow banning child abusers from having children. The suspicion at the time was that this was a desperate and cynical attempt to distract the public from the  deeply unpopular plans to increase class sizes.Now, thanks to FYI, the public OIA site, that interpretation looks to be the case.

A quick question

Written By: - Date published: 9:11 am, July 5th, 2012 - 197 comments

The Nats are going to terminate the benefits of those who fail or refuse drug tests. I have a question…

The price of National’s politicking

Written By: - Date published: 7:07 am, July 1st, 2012 - 81 comments

In a desperate effort to hang on to a few red-neck votes, National keeps on ramping up rhetoric against solo mums. There was talk of compulsory contraception or sterilisation. National played up those ideas, even though it hasn’t followed through. Is it any surprise, then, that poor mums, who don’t follow the news closely, just hear the rumours, are being scared into abortions?

Target practice

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, June 30th, 2012 - 8 comments

Just before the parliamentary recess National released its latest set of Laura Naude targets.  They will join all the others – catching up with Australia, jobs from the cycleway, government surplus by 2014, yadda yadda yadda. I can’t think of a single target National has actually met. These targets aren’t real; they are just there to provide fodder for uncritical media.

What’s Bill smoking?

Written By: - Date published: 9:45 am, June 29th, 2012 - 40 comments

We’re getting used to the Nats running bash the beneficiary /poor /Maori /unemployed /criminal /etc distractions but it’s getting pretty bad when Bill English gets in on the act. Weirdly his idea of drug-testing beneficiaries seems to have been picked up from a Daily Show piece on how it failed in Florida – costing money, not saving it, and proving beneficiaries use drugs less than the rest of the population.

ImperatorFish: More Futile and Cynical Policy

Written By: - Date published: 1:54 pm, June 26th, 2012 - 6 comments

John Key must think the New Zealand public have the memory of a goldfish. He’s put forward bold plans before, but they usually end in failure. Closing the income gap with Australia, creating more jobs, reducing the number of people fleeing to a better life in Australia. And now the promise to get back into budget surplus, which he’s already backtracking on.

Doubts over Cameron’s welfare blitz

Written By: - Date published: 12:57 pm, June 26th, 2012 - 2 comments

That’s the Guardian headline. Supposedly designed to give the Tories “political momentum”, it is late and over budget.  The Treasury is resigned to the programme costing money rather than providing savings. The LibDems won’t have a bar of it. Critics describe it as “pitch-rolling”, preparing the ground for further “reforms”.  More like spin-bowling here.

I’m sorry, where was the plan?

Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, June 26th, 2012 - 73 comments

“More than 20,000 unemployed people will be moved off the benefit within five years if the Government manages to meet its newly announced targets.”

Yes, but a target isn’t a plan.

Spot the difference

Written By: - Date published: 9:37 pm, June 25th, 2012 - 39 comments

There – “Cameron announces Tory plan to slash benefits.” Here – “The Government wants Work and Income to cut the number of long-term beneficiaries on a working-age benefit, John Key has just announced.” Tories normally do this when they are in trouble.

The super disaster

Written By: - Date published: 7:09 am, June 12th, 2012 - 191 comments

On Superannuation Key is in a very strange position indeed, where keeping his word is doing him more harm than breaking it. It’s a disaster for the country.

National: looking after those in need

Written By: - Date published: 10:51 am, June 11th, 2012 - 22 comments

When Righties say we can’t afford to support solo mums, what do they think we can afford instead?

Lifestyle “choices”

Written By: - Date published: 3:58 pm, June 6th, 2012 - 192 comments

Last year John Key said that the poor and those on benefits had made lifestyle choices.  If they budgeted properly, they’d be fine. Things aren’t fine, and they’re getting worse, which is why a 40-yr-old DPB Mum in Christchurch – facing an $80/week rent increase, because Key hasn’t done anything about Christchurch’s housing shortage – has had to resort to the lifestyle “choice” of prostitution.

The politics of reproduction

Written By: - Date published: 9:59 am, June 3rd, 2012 - 236 comments

The Nats have a thoroughly unhealthy obsession with the politics of reproduction. They’re talking about “stopping ‘unfit’ parents reproducing”, but Paula Bennet let slip the real agenda months ago.

The zero growth agenda

Written By: - Date published: 6:43 am, May 14th, 2012 - 68 comments

I chuckled to read Fran O’Shillivan on Sunday: “John Key has made a strategic decision to burn some political capital and front-foot major Government decisions” – yeah, all those major decisions: $1m for contraception, ‘tackling cyber-bullying’, a petty pokies for convention centre deal, even their centrepiece policy – asset sales – won’t benefit the economy a jot.

Compulsory vaccination for shareholders’ children

Written By: - Date published: 3:37 pm, May 12th, 2012 - 12 comments

In a shock new announcement the Prime Minister has confirmed recipients of corporate welfare will be forced to vaccinate their children.

Compulsory vaccination

Written By: - Date published: 2:48 pm, May 12th, 2012 - 341 comments

It is the Nats’ belief that those on a benefit have fewer human rights than the rest of us. They can simply be told what to do. So now we have a compulsory vaccination debate.

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