Posts by Matthew Poole
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Reduction in beneficiary numbers by 100,000 by 2021. Big. Fucking. Whoop. That'll happen without a single policy change, assuming the economy manages to recover of its own devices. The number of people who're on the dole and the DPB as a result of the recession is considerably greater than 100k, and the vast majority will transition to the workforce as soon as jobs are available.
About the only policy shift I can agree with wholeheartedly is free access to (I presume) IUDs. Assuming it's not made something on which the benefit becomes contingent, though with these fascist anything's possible.
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Whoops,
wtf about the pensioners whose bill is (I think) larger than dpb’ers
Much, much bigger. Super is, by over 100% (nearly $8b vs somewhere around $3b), the largest single part of the overall welfare bill. WFF is next. But since those two are ruled out of the WWG's terms of reference, the DPB just has to be tackled since it's the largest portion of the less-than-half-of-the-total that remains of the welfare spend that can be scrutinised.
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Grant McDougall,
As an aside, it’ll be interesting to see if Bennett holds on to Waitakere
Her win was pretty slim in '08, and the West is heavily populated with the working classes who've been hit hard by the recession. Voting for a stroppy Westie chick who lays claim to her beneficiary roots is great if you're sending a message to an unpopular government, but if that stroppy Westie chick turns out to be a ladder-kicker to all the other beneficiaries, well, yeah.
I don't like Bennett's chances, TBH, or National's chances in the other swing seats that they won in '08 given that they're mostly traditionally Labour and have had their aspirations for greatness punched in the teeth by the economic climate. -
Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to George Darroch,
As you well would know if you've been here longer than five minutes.
Since Nov 2006. 89 posts
That doesn't look like someone who came down in the last shower.
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Sue,
Also hands up anyone at winz longer than 2 years who had the same case manager
Anecdotal accounts I've heard, I think from a newspaper article, are that case managers are now required to have no humanising touches to their offices (no toys, no photos, no keepsakes) and it's expected that beneficiaries will have no assigned case manager. So every time you return to WINZ, you'll probably see a new person who doesn't know anything about you (or, at best, will have seen you several visits previously), will waste half of your allotted time (or more) just reading your case notes, and then prescribe a "solution" that you know won't work because it hasn't worked before. This is, of course, deliberate - the more inhuman and uncomfortable your WINZ experience is, the greater your desire and drive will be to get away from having to rely on WINZ.
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Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Russell Brown,
At least she has the nous to know that she’s being messed around
Where she works, and who she works for, gives her a lot of knowledge. It doesn't help her get treated any better, but she at least knows how to determine her entitlements and ask for them. It's bullshit that WINZ will make sure you're getting what you ought, unless you ask for every penny. They're volunteering nothing.
Right now, I think IRD are probably more helpful than WINZ, and they're there to take your money! -
Hard News: Welfare: Back to the Future?, in reply to Craig Ranapia,
Are you feeling OK?
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My brother and his partner are low-income: she job-shares at Parliament, he’s studying. My nephew is rapidly approaching 2. They were living in Hamilton (both sets of grandparents are there, so there was a support network), but living with her mother was highly stressful, the money situation was stressful, and there was the opportunity to share her old job, that she loves, in Wellington. So they wanted to move.
WINZ fucked them about for weeks on moving costs. Said there was money available, right up until the point the money was needed to arrange a moving company and then said that there wasn’t. Of course they’d refused to put anything in writing when they said it was available. In the end I loaned them money so that they could make rent and food for the first fortnight.SIL says that since Pull-ya took over, WINZ has become a place where everyone is viewed as wanting to cheat the system. She was asked outright if her relationship with my brother was a scam to get money. Uh, hello, they’ve been together for four or five years, they have a toddler and are still together. That’s a pretty elaborate scam.
Whatever WWG’s report says, things for beneficiaries will only get worse. As it is anyone who’s halfway competent avoids dealing with WINZ if they can. I was out of work for nearly four months before I applied for the dole, just so that I wouldn’t have to be subjected to the WINZ treatment. To be fair it was actually a lot less painful than I expected (probably helped by showing up in a suit and tie and demonstrating that I’d been looking for work), and in the end I got a job a week before my UEB was confirmed, but the guy I dealt with also said that they don’t have a clue how to handle highly-skilled, highly-motived people with experience in a “niche” (Linux and IP networks) field. Which, currently, is a lot of the people who are looking for work. People who, no doubt, WWG will accuse of being no-hope deadbeats who just need to try harder to find a job, because jobs are salvation. Or something.
About the only positive right now is that it’s come after the Teflon coating has, finally, started to wear off Key.
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Hard News: Gaying Out, in reply to Russell Brown,
Mr Derailing Asshole McTroll
Which one? ;)
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"beankruptcy". I'm sure it's just a typo, but I giggled all the same.
Now I have to finish reading the rest of the post.