Last weekend, when asked why they referred beneficiaries to an illegal garage to live in, the Ministry of Social Development told media that it wasn’t their responsibility to check the places they send homeless and vulnerable people to as that wasn’t, quote “In their remit”.
That’s right the billion dollars each year the Ministry of Social Development hand out as accommodation benefits to landlords has no ‘remit’ to check the accommodation they are placing these vulnerable people in are in fact…
a) houses
b) legal
or
c) safe
which is odd because when you think of it, safe and legal houses seems to be the very bloody definition of the remit that the accommodation benefit is being paid out for.
If the Ministry of Social Development can’t tell the difference between a safe, legal house and an illegal garage then perhaps they shouldn’t have the words Social or Development in their title.
How about the Ministry of Roach motels and slum Lords. That would at least make it more honest.
That is bloody unbelievable, especially when you consider the micro management and insane notions of perceived risk (when there is no history of an accident) that WorkSafe NZ is now forcing on workplaces. While the same government is that is driving many of us out of business due to outrages compliece cost for unnessary training, is at the same time throwing our most venerable citizens to the wolves (often foreign landlords) with no regard for their safety.
Shame on You JOHN Key and all your ass kissing yes men (and women).
This government rules for the rich and that pretty much excludes small business people. In fact, small businesses are competition that the rich don’t like or want around. The rich are corporations and competition means a reduction in profits for them.
All of this means that National will put in place policies that will drive small businesses out of business. And then, once labour get back in power, they’ll blame Labour for the failing small businesses despite the fact that it was their policies that drove the small businesses to failure.
We need workplace safety rules but the way that National implement them is disastrous as they’re designed to protect the rich rather than the workers.
The Ministry of Social Development is now a newspeak term, doublethink.
To quote Orwell “Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them”. Doublethink lies at the very heart of Ingsoc, since the essential act of the Party is to use conscious deception while retaining the firmness of purpose that goes with complete honesty. To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing them and to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies – all this is indispensably necessary”.
Obviously 1984 was a fictional book but one the National Party appears to have taken to heart, a kind of “how to guide” to lie to the dumb masses.
The Ministry of Social Development ceased being that many years ago, its become a kind of vindictive arm of the state to undevelop and punish. Soon the badly underfunded CYFS will cease too and a similarly misleading named ministry will take it’s place known as “The Ministry for Vulnerable Children”, one that will have a narrower focus designed to save money and yet positively manipulate statistics. I’m quite confident this new venture in illusion will open the cracks the kids now fall through into chasms and fail vulnerable children.
However no ministry can fix the endless shortcomings and damage caused by a government like ours.
Also when they get it wrong … they then “Double-Down!”
And this just in from The Guardian. Just yay. One more thing to feel proud of as a Kiwi on the Global stage.
Girls skip school while having their periods because they can’t afford tampons etc. Just yay.
Thanks @ $-figure bennett. You’re da bomb.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/30/new-zealand-schoolgirls-skip-class-because-they-cant-afford-sanitary-items
The “Ministry of Social Decline?” or The Ministry of Social Denial? The Ministry of Social Deficit? … There’s a them in this. I think?
…Ministry of Social Dumbarses, Ministry of Social Dubiousness, Ministry of Social Double-Talk …. Dumpers, Dummies, Dodging, Deniers, Decliners ….
MSD are disgusting, particularly their WINZ department. Tonight there was another report with an update on the situation of the tenants in the illegally converted garage subleased to people referred there by WINZ, as it seems:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/property-manager-allegedly-told-illegal-tenant-to-lie-to-council-2016073018
“Meanwhile, Work and Income, which directed some clients to Ms Iskandar for accommodation, is now proactively contacting them to see how it can help.
Newshub is aware of one tenant who has shifted out of an Iskandar garage into temporary accommodation with Work and Income’s help.
But the Salvation Army believes the problem is people desperate for state houses are purposely being put off applying for one.
“I think what we’ve seen really is the ways of discouraging or deterring applications, and on that basis, the application list or waiting list is being kept quite low,” the Salvation Army’s Alan Johnson said.
Work and Income categorically denies that and says a recent increase in waiting list numbers proves it’s wrong.”
Work and Income categorically deny it, what a joke, I have heard enough stories of people on benefits, who were told lies and were fobbed off by WINZ staff, so they felt they did not qualify for benefits and support that they actually were entitled to.
These lying jerks at the top of MSD, so they tell the media, beneficiaries have to look after themselves and check things when entering a tenancy agreement, suggesting they are capable and mature and confident enough doing so, while in other matters they treat them like little, immature kids.
I point to this:
http://www.msd.govt.nz/documents/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/regulatory-impact-statements/policy-changes-proposed-as-part-of-the-rewrite-of-social-security-act-1964.pdf
They presented this RIS on the Social Security Legislation Rewrite Bill, presently before the Social Services Committee, justifying the automatic redirection of benefit money to landlords, e.g. Housing NZ and social housing providers.
Read Part 3 from page 20 onwards to page 26! They do obviously widen the powers of WiNZ staff to redirect benefit payments for rent to be paid to other landlords and also for other purposes besides of rent.
They talk of better management of the money of beneficiaries, and seem not to trust them with handling their money themselves. Reference is made to UK findings, justifying such mandatory redirections. One must ask, why does MSD then bother sending beneficiaries to budget advisors, when they do anyway think they cannot manage their money.
And if beneficiaries are there not trusted with their ability to manage their affairs, when it comes to responsibilities and rights between them and landlords, there they have another view?
Bizarre, how bizarre.
MSD = Ministry of Social Dismantling or Ministry of Social Destruction.
Get Chris Trotter to write about this subject…I’m sure he will turn Paula Bennett into a hero of the poor…like Roger Douglas was a hero of the needy.
Good grief, don’t give the man such suggested ideas, please!
The names are all part of the neurolinguistic war on us. Department of Social Welfare meant what it said, welfare, not Income, i.e welfare being all encompassing rather than we dole you a pittance of income to get you to go away.. Labour meant labour, not Work with all its neolib / protestant work ethic connotations.
Ministry of Social Destitution.
Anti Social Warfare Department
As brazenly Orwellian as “Ministry of Health” and “Ministry of Education” under these neoliberal nutbars.
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