Posts Tagged ‘benefits’

Reactions to Metiria – the political and the personal

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, July 29th, 2017 - 181 comments

There are basically two kinds of reaction to Metiria’s bombshell, the practiced “outrage’ of the usual political operatives, and the support of the ordinary people. I think that the louder the operatives shout, the more that people are going to side with the under-dog.

A target we can celebrate missing

Written By: - Date published: 8:38 am, July 16th, 2016 - 72 comments

Anne Tolley has conceeded that the Nats will not meet their objective of getting 65,000 people off the benefit in the next two years. Good. It is the wrong goal.

Deconstructing the government’s report card

Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, July 7th, 2015 - 11 comments

The government has awarded itself a nice report card. Let’s take a closer look.

Budget gives with one hand and takes with the other

Written By: - Date published: 6:49 am, May 22nd, 2015 - 188 comments

An increase to the base rate of benefits is welcome, but it comes with nasty fishhooks. As the Nats are forced to address leftie / progressive issues – a capital gains tax, Auckland housing, poverty – we the people need to keep the pressure on.

Boots Theory: Creepy behaviour from David Farrar

Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, September 27th, 2014 - 78 comments

David Farrar continues the Dirty Politics strategy of trying to intimidate critics of the government into silence.

WANTED: new ideas on child poverty

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, September 24th, 2014 - 88 comments

It’s great to see John Key taking a sudden interest in addressing child poverty in New Zealand. But why the change of heart?

We’re all beneficiaries now

Written By: - Date published: 7:38 pm, March 6th, 2013 - 168 comments

The drought shows how important social protection systems are. When the unexpected happens – your farm dries up, you get sick, you lose your job, you find yourself alone raising your kids – the community steps in by way of tax funded Social Protection.

Paula Benefit Distractions

Written By: - Date published: 10:50 pm, July 21st, 2012 - 51 comments

Today’s big announcement from Paula Bennett at the National Party Conference was that those on the run from police will have their benefits stopped. But the question needs to be asked: how many people on the run are collecting the benefit?

The Pernicious Food Card

Written By: - Date published: 6:05 pm, August 16th, 2011 - 72 comments

Or how the food card will inevitably push beneficiaries  into all types of deeper strife.

The cartoon (since it doesn’t show up clearly and you might be wondering) is a lifebelt being thrown in the “Welfare” cell and a book titled “Learn to swim” being thrown in the second “Welfare Reform” cell.

Bludgin’ ain’t so easy

Written By: - Date published: 2:30 pm, December 18th, 2008 - 47 comments

So, I’m out of work. I was employed on a contract and when it came up for renewal the boss told me business is too tight, have to let me go. It wasn’t their fault and they were pretty good about it. For the first few weeks I just looked for work but there’s not […]

Should the sins of the father be visited upon the children?

Written By: - Date published: 8:30 am, August 13th, 2008 - 91 comments

When the DPB was first proposed it had a very simple purpose, to allow mothers to leave abusive relationships, to allow them to protect their children from beatings, alcoholism and psychological abuse. It was intended to ensure that those children would have a real chance at a healthy and happy life. It did not, and could […]

Gordon Campbell on Nats’ welfare plan

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 am, August 12th, 2008 - 15 comments

Dog whistle politics to some, beneficiary bashing to others. But is there logic to National’s policy on benefits? Gordon Campbell asks: Will John Key’s policy announcement on welfare this afternoon do much to resolve the problems it claims to address? Hardly… It is as if National felt the need to beat up on beneficiaries somehow, and somewhere […]

Ambitious for beneficiary-bashing

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, August 11th, 2008 - 40 comments

That nice man, Mr Key, the one who says the old Left/Right divide is over, that he’s a new man with a new (ambitious) vision for New Zealand has rolled out an unprecedented and exciting policy today: beneficiary bashing. At present, we have a world-leading benefit system. By investing in staff, WINZ has become more […]

The headline you didn’t see

Written By: - Date published: 1:40 pm, June 20th, 2008 - 94 comments

‘Unemployment benefits at record low.’ The number of people receiving the unemployment benefit has fallen to just 17,465. That’s the lowest number since at least 1979. At the same time, Sickness Benefit numbers fell 1,542 (3%) in the last year, DPB numbers are down 12% in the last five years. Overall, benefit numbers have dropped […]

More on benefit levels

Written By: - Date published: 1:20 pm, May 12th, 2008 - 61 comments

It was disappointing to hear National Radio this morning summarise the recent debate over benefit levels as ‘benefits are not keeping up with the cost of living’. Benefits are keeping up with the cost of living they are adjusted every year to keep them in line with the cost of living (that’s what the Consumer […]

Undo the cuts

Written By: - Date published: 3:05 pm, May 11th, 2008 - 56 comments

Good to see Ruth Dyson finally admitting we have left beneficiaries behind. I would hope now that there would be a lot more done than simply indexing benefits to wages though. Increasing the benefit to real pre-1991 levels would be a good start. A lot of people know about the benefit cuts but not many […]

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