Yesterday morning’s puff piece for Paula on women on the DPB has me grumpy. Very very grumpy.
Before I start pulling this article to shreds, I would like to congratulate the subject of this story for making positive changes in her life. I’m proud of her. We should all be proud of her! No doubt there. Well done!
No – my problem isn’t with her, it’s with the story itself. Could they have possibly found a more right-wing-haters stereotypical beneficiary saga if they tried? And how did this amazingly stereotypical ex-beneficiary find herself in the hands of a reporter at the Waikato Times? Somehow I doubt she gave them a call out of the blue and invited them around for coffee.
No – I think this lady is being used to further National’s aim to make the entire beneficiary population look like wasters who should just get off their arse and get a job – which is not the reality. Are there people who are welfare dependent and have options to change their lives? Yes. I’m not going to argue that there aren’t people on benefits out of habit. But most beneficiaries are there because they genuinely need help – and aren’t they going to feel stink when this is thrust in their faces by those who think everyone on the benefit is a lazy do-nothing. Yet another example of a stereotypical basher story marginalising the majority who are struggling day to day under an oppressive regime.
Let’s play count-the-stereotypes.
-Maori
-Drinker
-Smoker
-‘Lazy’
-Bad example to kids
-20+ years on DPB
-Had a partner but claiming DPB
-Had six kids while on DPB
-Parenting not seen as a valuable role in society
Wow. She couldn’t fit the basher stereotype more if she tried.
I’m sorry Judy, but you have been used. The message boards, right-wing blogs etc will be eating you alive right now, proclaiming you as a great example of a welfare leech, pulling apart your personal history and making you a poster child for bludgers. I know that wasn’t your goal, but its sadly the reality. I’m not mad at you – I’m mad that you have been used by the media and the government to ram home the view that DPB parents are lazy bludgers who use their benefit for alcohol, smokes and ripping off the taxpayer.
Keep your head high – be proud of what you’ve accomplished, the good example you’re showing your children, and also, be damn proud of raising all 6 of them – that’s not easy. Those years were not pointless – you had value during those years – you’re a mum, and being there for your kids is more important than anything else you could possibly do with your life.
Let’s switch the focus back to the reality of what our government is doing to our most vulnerable citizens. The National government is determined to run beneficiaries into the ground, and tell them they should all be in jobs – and that motherhood is not a job. Mothers with new babies are being told to stick them in day-care and get a job, or else . And if they miss an appointment – bam – benefit halved or cut. Not to mention what happens when they DO make their appointment – In the last few months we’ve also seen some insanely bad behaviour from WINZ staff towards mothers and their children. There was the breastfeeding mum who had a blanket thrown over the head of her baby by a case manager. Then there was the child who was denied access to a toilet and had no choice but to defecate in his clothes. Not every WINZ staff member is like this, I must reinforce – many of them are amazing, yet increasingly cobbled by continual welfare reforms.
Our government’s respect for the children of single mothers is zilch. The DPB barely covers essential costs as it is. Halving it for missing an appointment is CHILD ABUSE. What do the kids eat? Where do they go when the rent can’t be paid? How can they stay warm? The government is guilty of child NEGLECT and should be held to account for it. They are shafting our kids and they don’t even care.
Instead they encourage stories like today’s to make themselves look like they are doing a fantastic job. Suuuuure. I’m not buying it. You shouldn’t buy it. This lady said herself that it was her decision to change her life, not WINZ’s. Many make the same decision every day, and we should be proud of every single one of them.
We shouldn’t be so proud of our government, who has continually widened the gap between the poor and the rich, the powerful and the vulnerable. Nor our media, who seem to have forgotten what the 4th Estate is, and are following National around like lap dogs.
I read that item on line and couldn’t believe the stereotypes too. Amazing to think this perspective can be dished up without an uproar. It’s a pity we don’t have some up do date comedians and shows like Mcphail and Gadspy to really take the piss out of this bullshit!
My favourite quote: I always wondered why somebody didn’t do something about that – then I realised I am somebody. (Lily Tomlin)
On reading that article again, the following struck me:
“She moved in with her nan, who needed care, and over the next 20 years gave birth to Tia Huia, Raiatea and Rangi Taiki, Marama and Wati o te aroha.
The children visited their father for holidays and he paid child support, but raising the children – who are now aged between 2 and 23 – fell overwhelmingly to Wilson.
Although there were intermittent periods of work, each time she was pregnant she returned to the DPB.”
“”I was a family woman and I wanted to be with my children,” she said. “I wanted to be involved in their education. That’s why I wanted to be freed up.””
“However, Wilson is adamant it was her own desire to do something with her life that motivated her – not a push from WINZ. She said she had “no goals” when she grew up and knew only that she wanted to be a mum.”
So she actually did not “lay about” at all, she cared for her “nan”, who needed care, she looked after her children, which in itself would be a full-time job, and also did her partner pay child support and visit the kids!
Drinking is not something that only beneficiaries (some of them) do, it is what most people do every week or few weeks.
And she chose herself, to do a course and get a job as a carer, and she states it was not WINZ that convinced her to do this. I presume her kids are now also old enough to be in care outside home, at school and so, hence she would be more freed up.
Indeed, this is just a “poster story” to “promote” the government and their welfare reforms, by an apparently biased journalist, or by WINZ perhaps “selling” it to promote themselves. Judy is being exploited for political purposes, nothing else.
Shame on the “jer*s” for doing this.
Judy has NOTHING to feel ashamed of!
And what about those “statistics” for persons on benefits? Is that the years that some have been in and out of benefit receipt, as it seems, as I seriously doubt that anyone is on a benefit without interruption for those periods mentioned in the article.
Unfortunately I have come across more than one woman who had got off what was then called the DPB and almost immediately turned on those still on it. Even when they were forced off because their child had reached a certain age, some still managed to develop an ACT type hatred for those still struggling. We are a very strange species, and often not particularly likeable.
I imagine this happens because beneficiaries are encouraged to hate themselves, with daily reinforcement, so that once they graduate to something else, they still have a lot of hatred for those still in that situation.
OVICULA – This is exactly one aspect that has disturbed, confused and worried me immensely, especially about the apparent “submissive”, “adaptive” and “silent” reaction by those affected to the actually disgustingly humiliating, draconian, yes inhumane “welfare reforms” under this government!
Where are the protests? Where are the pickets? Where are people standing up for their rights? Where is the dissent? Where are the voices of those suppressed and depressed, into powerless humiliation, are they all so scared, are they all not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them, are they not realising, that by not defending themselves and fighting this, they are going to invite even worse treatment for the future???
This is the kind of stuff that fascist regimes thrived on, and it shocks me to be core of my bones and nerves, that there is so wide spread apathy and long-suffering, which makes NO sense at all.
I fear for the future of this country, as a population that does no longer stand up for their rights, will have no leg to stand on in future. Divisions and intimidation will become the norm, and it is a precursor for a truly Orwellian society, which is well under way here!
From the stuff.co story:
“As of September, there were 7050 people seeking sole parent support in the Waikato Region. The vast majority have been receiving assistance for more than one year and many of them will do so long term.
According to a June 12 valuation from the Ministry of Social Development, sole parents spend an average of 15.8 years on the benefit over their lifetime, at a cost of $234,000.
People who get on a benefit as youths spend an average 18.9 years, costing $239,000.
At a glance, it’s been a similar story for Wilson. She had her first child at 20 and moved from Auckland back to her hometown Huntly, alone.”
Yeah, I suppose then we start sending every New Zealander an annual account statement, not just for the welfare paid as WFF, for accommodation supplement and the likes, but also summarising all the costs for their education, health care costs, road use, administrative costs for having them “managed” by various government offices, for local body and other public offices, including any possible charges for “using” police or other “attention” at any time during the year.
That will be balanced against taxes and fees paid, so the balance will inform EVERY New Zealander how much they COST and are NET WORTH for each year.
And down the line to bring in further “investment approach” measures, we will herd the beneficiaries into poor homes, to house them more cheaply and “economically”, and make them work for a minimum set of hours a week, for any “benefit” they get. They are already doing it increasingly with prisoners, who build houses or parts thereof for Housing NZ, or do other “jobs” to pay for the “services” they enjoy at the taxpayer’s expense.
Welcome to New Zealand 2013, which is moving fast towards a more radical neoliberal capitalist system with some fascist features. The sick and disabled will also increasingly be ushered into work, to get off their “lazy” backsides, to earn their livihood themselves.
Early next year new “assessments” UK style, a bit like the ATOS ones for DWP, will be introduced, as this article in the Otago Daily Times reported two days ago:
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/278489/tests-disabled-flawed-model
Even the wheelchair bound can assemble ball point pens or knit socks in sitting, I am sure! And addicts can work around their drug use, and mentally ill can be employed “on call”, when they have “better days”!
“Arbeit macht Frei”!
Could they have possibly found a more right-wing-haters stereotypical beneficiary saga if they tried? And how did this amazingly stereotypical ex-beneficiary find herself in the hands of a reporter at the Waikato Times?
How do the sob-story examples like the one about Leanne Griffin that you link to come about? Well, because it’s a reporter’s job to find people to illustrate their stories, so they find them. And a reporter wouldn’t have had to spend a long time looking to find someone like the stereotype you’re pretending is highly unusual.
Keep your head high – be proud of what you’ve accomplished, the good example you’re showing your children…
Is that the “accomplishment” and role-modelling example of continually getting pregnant without any means of raising the resulting children? Spending your adult life as a social welfare beneficiary? Or needing a 9-year-old to point out what should be glaringly obvious? It may be a shame that the environment she was raised in left her the kind of person for whom getting an unskilled job after decades of wasterdom is classed as a lifetime achievement, but the fact she and one or more male wasters have produced six children to be raised in a similar environment ought to be cause for serious concern, not congratulation.
In the last few months we’ve also seen some insanely bad behaviour from WINZ staff towards mothers and their children.
So, it’s OK to bad-mouth WINZ staff, but we have to use kid gloves with the 39-going-on-16-year-old with the junkie boyfriend and the children carefully spaced to ensure she doesn’t lose her benefit, who can’t make her WINZ appointments because she’s a disqualified driver? Not seeing it.
Why thank you for providing an exemplary example of the typical basher reaction!
“with the junkie boyfriend and the children carefully spaced to ensure she doesn’t lose her benefit, who can’t make her WINZ appointments because she’s a disqualified driver? Not seeing it.”
I’m the one “not seeing it” as no where did I see any mention of a “junkie boyfriend”, the age of each of her children, or the fact she was a disqualified driver.
Oh wait, I see it now- you were using a stereotype!
It was a reference to one of the stories linked to from the post. Kind of funny that what strikes you as a stereotype is actually a real person…
You’re quite right, those traits were mentioned in a different article about a different woman, but it seems you’re just cherry picking to add to the author’s …”Let’s play count-the-stereotypes” list.
If I’m allowed to cherry pick bad traits from any social group I too could compile a lengthy list for…”Let’s play count-the-stereotypes”.
(Apologies for not responding earlier, I have been away)
Are you envious at all? That this particular woman chose a far from affluent lifestyle to bear and raise children in, help her nan, be part of her community (did you put any of those services on the other side of your Weigh Their Worth scales?) instead of rushing out to a semi-skilled job as soon as she could, to pay others to raise her offspring.
Have you ever done any ‘unskilled’ work? Any? I’m guessing ‘not’ because you clearly fail to see the sheer mastery required for most of those non-academic yet no less demanding tasks.
Can you back a truck and trailer down a very narrow alley without mishap? Harvest vegetables for market with minimal wastage? Put up an effective farm fence over a day or so? Handle offensive louts with humour and courtesy in a pub? Even quickly and safely stack grocery shelves? Your post indicates that few of those would be within your capabilities because you might find them ‘demeaning’ and ‘unworthy of your training’. But unskilled? No. Differently skilled and equally able.
Now she’s raised her brood and is moving out into the world in her own time, to her own choice of work. As it needs to be. And, with her rich past experience she is likely to be an asset to whoever hires her as a carer.
Patience, Psycho Milt. People grow at their own rate, and all the shaming in the world won’t help matters at all.
Have you ever done any ‘unskilled’ work?
What a silly question – of course I have. No work is demeaning, but spending your adult life as a waster is as demeaning as it comes.
Differently skilled and equally able.
The opinion that someone who, by their own admission, has spent nearly 20 years on social welfare benefits “not doing anything,” is as skilled and able as someone who spent that period in the workforce is a grotesque and gratuitous insult to everyone who works for a living in any kind of job whatsoever. It’s great that someone’s been willing to take a punt on this one having genuinely discovered the merits of contributing something to society, but she’s not going to be a patch on someone with a couple of decades work experience.
It’s a reasonable, perfectly ordinary reaction. In the wildly unlikely event that I see a story about some rich prick who’s seen the light after decades of ripping off employees, shareholders and the taxpayer, I won’t be thinking “Good on ya mate, be proud of your achievements” – if that’s a “basher” reaction, there’s a lot to be said for bashers.
Ovicular said: We are a very strange species, and often not particularly likeable.
It was made as a general comment but it really does fit you Pyscho Milt.
Ovicular said: We are a very strange species, and often not particularly likeable.
It was made as a general comment but it really does fit you Pyscho Milt.
@ Marc .
” Where are the protests? Where are the pickets? Where are people standing up for their rights? Where is the dissent? Where are the voices of those suppressed and depressed, into powerless humiliation, are they all so scared, are they all not wanting to bite the hand that feeds them, are they not realising, that by not defending themselves and fighting this, they are going to invite even worse treatment for the future??? ”
The answers to most of your questions are in social psychology 101 .
There’s one critical element missing to galvanize the imaginations of the oppressed suffering from the slowly boiled frog syndrome .
A Leader .
New Zealand has a frightening leadership deficit made all the more frightening for me personally because I’m pinning all my hopes on Cunliffe . Now that I’m in my late fifties , I’m too old to be bitterly disappointed .
I hope you’re not just “pinning all my hopes on Cunliffe” because the first three letters of his name match to a “t” a word you often use in your amusing posts!
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