A coroner’s inquest has revealed how WINZ has adopted a punitive culture that led directly to the recent suicide of one of the people it was meant to be helping.
celebrated former beneficiary Paula Bennet was the minister in charge at the time and should be help responsible.
Monthly quotas were imposed at the Ministry of Social Development to prosecute beneficiaries, an inquest into the death of a woman accused of benefit fraud has heard.
“We had to get one prosecution per month. We had to get $30,000 of debt to be recovered per month,” a former MSD investigator told the inquest into the death of Wendy Shoebridge. “Four cases had to be cleared per month.”
Shoebridge, a 41-year-old mother, was found dead in Lower Hutt on April 3, 2011.
The day before, she opened a letter saying she was to be referred for prosecution over an alleged $22,000 benefit fraud. After her death, that amount fell to about $5500.
Shoebridge was on the path to recovery after troubles including severe depression, coroner Anna Tutton heard, and the investigator did not want to prosecute her.
But he said a higher-ranking employee disagreed, and he was not well-placed to defy management.Â
“My manager told me that just because [she] had threatened suicide in the past doesn’t mean she will try again.
“I was given a direction. Unfortunately it was the wrong direction.”
Because of existing concerns for Shoebridge, he hoped to hand-deliver the letter to her, but said this too was ruled out.
Accessing support from WINZ is a nightmare. There has been a massive drop in the mumber of people accessing benefits as a percentage of the working age population that is not matched by similar drops in official unemployment levels.
I am convinced that is a significant reason fro the high levels of suicide in this country and the rise in absolute poverty reflected in levels of homelessness and the growing numbers of people accessing foodbanks.
A culture change is needed.Â
A small step in the right direction would be to abolish the difference between the single rate of benefit and the reduced rate you get if you are living in a relationship with someone else.
The next step would be to increase the rate someone with children gets on the jobseekers benefit to be the same as the sole parent benefit.
The current discriminatory Working for Families system should be changed to allow all low-income families access to the same level of support as those in work.
WINZ would no longer have an excuse to be hunting people down because a boyfriend has stayed too many times overnight. The punitive moralistic WINZ police could find better jobs to do.
The more accessing welfare support when needed is seen as a right the better off we all will be as a society,
Mike
Spot on. Why we put up with a 19th century morality is beyond words.
two people sharing accommodation are supposed to be different from two people ‘living together’. So different that if the two people on a benefit are found to be in a relationship ( ie having sex) their income is cut to an impossibly low level even if there are children from past relationships involved. it is no accident that the poorest parts of NZ are the ones with the highest sole parent rates. low income couples cant afford to be in couples. Thanks for also pointing out WFF is being allowed to decay Outcry in 2017 please New Zealand- thanks for this Mike!!!
MSD have at no time since the decision in Ruka applied the correct legal test as to what constitutes a relationship in the nature of marriage. They just haven’t been interested in bothering to understand it. My guess is that the debt MSD decided Wendy Shoebridge owed was reduced when they realised that even their own limited idea about what a relationship in the nature of marriage means told them they’d got it wrong.
This above photo of Paula shows a tightly controlled ; staunch woman with cement held jaw and mouth and cold eyes TRYING TO GIVE THE ILLUSION of a person of authority and a person of strength.
What a superficial joke. Look at her expression – does she look like a woman of warmth; compassion and someone you could trust or have a coffee with ? ? ? Does she look like someone who cares more for people than her power / her position and her bank account and being part of the old boys club ?
She and her govt. have failed the people ( and the environment ) but – boy oh boy – both they and their profit making buddies have raked it in at our expense.
If I were a homeless and / or suicidal person, she is the last person I would want on my side trying to help me.
Her true and genuine caring for those in need is allegedly superficial and can not hold a candle to her joy at her recent pay rise. Alleged power tripping — RUDE & INSULTING phony and now she is second in command of our country. What mad perception is in control now with this kind of a person in charge of those in need and in charge of our government ? We are being controlled by forces way beyond our country. It is no accident that jonky donky left in a hurry and she is now second in command.
More puppet controlled madness as the game continues on with the smiling brigade of right wing wealthy elitists.
Run for cover when you see this tight jaw ; pursed lips ; cold eyes and gaudy clothes coming your way.
Was “The woman from the Ministry”, in the Harry Potter series based on her, or is it the other way around?
This is just one case, one of a fair few, I dread, and it shows how the bean counters pushing the “investment approach” rule with terror within MSD.
Depression is just one condition that they do not seem to take all that seriously, the case managers and their superiors, hence the drive to try and even force sick and disabled into work. Reducing costs for the government, which would then allow them to go and offer tax cuts to others, that is the true agenda.
The social conscience has long gone out the window, that is at least in the upper levels of management at WINZ (if they ever had one), their staff get set targets, although they like to say, there are no rewards for throwing people off benefits, for digging into their privacy and trying to find “fraudulent” behaviour.
In 2012/13 the catch cry was to “free” people from “welfare dependency”, being sick and disabled was no longer an excuse for not being “fit for work”, and they tried to adopt the harsh approach from the UK, where one Professor Mansel Aylward had succeeded in influencing key policy makers and some colleagues in the medical fraternity to put the pressure on doctors and those being assessed as too sick and disabled to work.
Paula Bennett was all excited then, boasting about the new “findings”, and apparent miracle solutions were talked about, to “enable” people to get back to work, while employers continued to simply try and get the fittest and cheapest and most desperate to do any kind of work at sometimes appalling terms and conditions.
So more and more end up between a rock and a hard place, homeless, jobless, sleeping on couches, in cars, resorting to prostitution, drug dealing and whatever else may get them a bit of cash to make ends meet when WINZ cracks down too hard.
Read more about what really goes on:
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/02/medical-and-work-capability-assessments-based-on-the-controversial-bio-psycho-social-model/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/09/07/the-health-and-disability-panel-and-its-hand-picked-members/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/designated-doctors-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc-the-truth-about-them/
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/designated-doctors-used-by-winz-msd-the-truth-about-them-post-upd-18-10-2016.pdf
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/nz-finance-minister-bill-english-insults-beneficiaries-with-mansel-aylwards-work-will-set-you-free-approach/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/10/05/work-has-fewer-health-benefits-than-mansel-aylward-and-other-experts-claim-it-can-cause-serious-harm/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/06/21/work-ability-assessments-done-for-work-and-income-a-revealing-fact-study-part-a/
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/work-ability-assessments-done-for-work-and-income-a-revealing-fact-study-part-d/
But slowly the truth about that flawed model and the dishonest use of supposed “Evidence” is coming out:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/senior-scientist-and-legal-experts-discredit-evidence-used-by-msd-and-dr-bratt-when-claiming-the-health-benefits-of-work/
‚In the expectation of recovery’, Faulkner, Centre for Welfare Reform, Scrib
https://www.scribd.com/doc/308613502/In-the-Expectation-of-Recovery
(criticism of biopsychosocial model, Aylward et al)
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/msd-dr-bratt-present-misleading-evidence-on-worklessness-and-health-publ-post-19-09-16.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/msd-and-dr-david-bratt-present-misleading-evidence-claiming-worklessness-causes-poor-health/
Mike
great list there thanks- what a record
These are extremely serious allegations and I look forward to Paula being called to answer them in a public forum.
I won’t hold my breath though.
Interesting to see Stuff had no comments section open for this story… they are very selective about comments on stories seen as critical of the current ‘regime’.
Yeah, funny that, eh? You can bet if the story was about feral tenants ruining some poor property investor’s rental, or some scrounging bene rorting the system to feed their smokes and pokies habit, comments would be wide open. Feel free to put the boot in to those no-hopers, just don’t say anything even vaguely derogatory about Paula ‘Poster Woman For Hypocrisy’ Bennett. It’s mean and ‘unhelpful’.
Brace yourselves for the WINZ damage control department to categorically deny there have ever been targets in place regarding the prosecution of “clients” for benefit fraud. It’s all an unfortunate misunderstanding and the department extends its heartfelt (stop smirking, this is serious) condolences to the friends and family of Wendy Shoebridge.
Meanwhile, back in the real world…
A massive system overhaul is required, starting with the elimination of face to face contact. It is unnecessary, increases humiliation, and exposes staff (and clients) to violence.
Money currently squandered on leases, receptionists, security guards and computer kiosks should be directed to beneficiaries to keep them online and in touch with the world.
ACT and Welfare dependency:
ACT believes that the welfare system New Zealand developed from the 1970s onward has been a social and economic disaster. While the intention of reducing hardship was noble, the incentive effects of the system have overwhelmed the resource provision effects. The policies have led to dependency and indignity for hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders, with an intergenerational dimension.
ACT supports the current government’s initiatives to shift welfare from a paradigm of open-ended provision and resulting dependence to one of mutual obligation. ACT would continue this process by reducing effective marginal tax rates for those shifting from welfare to work, outsourcing rehabilitation functions to private providers, putting lifetime limits on Sole Parent Support, cracking down on benefit fraud, and scrapping the minimum wage.
Online education has been incredibly successful and is fully supported by ACT in the long-term goal of privatising education in New Zealand and taking the financial burden for education away from taxpayers.
Our policies are designed to create the right conditions for people to reach their full potential and build successful families, businesses and lives.
However, online beneficiaries, as Z suggests, could not be supported. There would be too much corruption by beneficiaries possible. And what about coercion, with an abusive husband using standover tactics to force a spouse to ask for benefits she knows would be fraudulent?
Having security guards at the doors is a cost however, that should be passed on to the users of welfare, especially violent or aggressive beneficiaries, in the same way that user-pays motels are being used to recoup the cost of emergency housing.
People sent to jail, should also be charged for their time in prison. If they are not capable, then their families should bear the cost of incarceration. So many perpetrators blame their parents or their upbringing for their crimes. It’s time for those emotional and psychological triggers for antisocial behaviours in their offspring, to start paying for their collective crimes.
Our policies are designed to create the right conditions for people to reach their full potential and build successful families, businesses and lives….poor included.
“ACT supports the current government’s initiatives to shift welfare from a paradigm of open-ended provision and resulting dependence to one of mutual obligation.”
MUTUAL OBLIGATION is already applied under the Social Security Act 1964, now in process of being rewritten, Mr See NO More!
Indeed, the list of obligations has been added to incessantly over recent years, while the rights of persons dependent on state support have been cut back at the same time.
Preach your drivel to the ignorant and the up themselves ones in Epsom (those that vote mindless ACT), as you are wasting your time here. We don’t fall for such nonsense.
Perhaps a study of the Social Security Act may be worth your time, if you can bother.
This is news
Appalling, that manager should be charged with manslaughter.
And here is the research that backs up that.
https://www.academia.edu/29679568/What_the_Poor_Eat
An across the board UBI would solve all these things. Those earning the top rates would pay higher tax and the UBI would be clawed back by Govt, but those on the lowest or no income would get to keep the lot. The stupid thing about Social Welfare is the cost of administering it is similar to giving everyone a UBI. Outside of this, a small department which assesses those with different needs, such as the disabled’s higher costs and accommodation needs, can be set up. It will come, and the sooner the better for NZers so this benefit bashing culture and ending up in debts (which often just magically appears) can end and suicide can be an exceptional event.
winz is so dis-functional it should disbanded and move to no strings attached ubi and Paula benett should be before the courts
I also think that the jobseekers amount, even if for a single person with no children, is barely enough to live on. Some people, like myself, are on jobseekers with medical exemption. I can’t actually work but I can’t access the supported living payment because my condition is not considered ‘permanent’ even though I’ve been sick for four years. I don’t understand why chronically ill or disabled people should be expected to live in poverty.
It’s because, in their eyes, you’re of no consequence, Rosie. The poor, ill, disabled and other worthless burdens upon the state should do the dignified thing and crawl quietly off to die. You contribute nothing to the government coffers, and as such, you have no voice, no power, and no means of resistance. You’re nothing more than a bleating parasite screaming into the wind. And the worst… the absolute worst perfidy you’re likely guilty of, is neglecting to make a generous donation to the National Party. I mean, really Rosie, how could you? (And you probably don’t play golf, or drink John Key’s wine, which further tarnishes your non-existent reputation.)
And that, very generally, is why they don’t really care if you starve to death in a gutter.
Yep that’s the nasty things about the elites. They only value life ifor it is at there station. Otherwise you can go off and die quietly somewhere.
Water off a ducks back to Bennett. Bennett is deputy PM so is ecstatic which just proves how morally bankrupt National MP’s are. I say MP’s because I lump in Coleman on Health and Parata on Education just to name a few. Oh Louise Upston for minister of Women (ha ha)
Hard cold woman with no intelligent clue about how to help those in need.
Big talker – thinks she is high and mighty and above the rest of us.
La La land with leaders more beholding to their funders and image and bank statements than to the people.
Condolences to all the families of victims like Wendy Shoebridge because there are many more than this – “out of touch” govt. wants to admit to.
Thank you for your condolences. Wendy is/was my daughter. The above article omits to say, however, that MSD, shortly after reducing the debt to $5000.00 then decided that Wendy owed them nothing, and admitted that they had made a mistake in sending that letter. But all this is nowhere near the half of the story, in fact it barely scratches the surface. What happened was catastrophic for Wendy and her family, and we are still dealing with the grief.
Barbara
So sorry to hear of what you have all been through. There are no words. Thank you for your bravery is posting this as you suffer the grief of such a huge loss. The culture has to change.
I feel for you, this is a shocking story indeed. Perhaps it is time to set up a victim support group for those suffering such injustices at the hands of WINZ and also ACC.
Barbara, I am so SO ! sorry for your loss and the madness and lack of integrity and honesty around it. Thanks for reaching out.
—- Have you ever thought about writing a book about this, maybe getting some editorial help so as to expose this horrific story to the country ? I bet there are other stories and other people and help to do a project like that. Martyn may know of some help in this area for you, if you are interested.
Justice can come in many different ways and exposing these idiots and the defunct system they operate in would be a very good thing.
Spot on post! Would love to see the UBI come in – this punitive way our taxes are wasted at present needs to change. If people were not so in fear of losing their benefit then they could manage their lives better, take chances to engage in work and even if it did not work out – they tried. Suicide would drop, poverty would drop or even be eliminated.
As for the DPB witch hunts – they are a disgrace to our country – the law has to change, the sooner the better. The DPB money is for the CHILDREN not the parent, so no matter what the parent does (my god have sex, sarc) the child’s benefit should not be able to be cut.
I’m happy to contribute funds to a private prosecution on WINZ and the government on this. legal challenges seem to be able to bring about real discussion and change in this country. The government certainly doesn’t care they are killing people and driving them into poverty and discriminating against their kids with this disgusting legislation and targets.
I would be extremely happy to accept your generous offer. I am Wendy’s mother. I would also be happy to fill you in on the whole story privately as there are legal impediments to the entire story being made public, and also the Coroner has yet to release her findings.
Amazing Barbara – Your daughters story is one that, I feel, should not be filed away with no justice for you or in her name. The govt. and Winz get away with far too much, far too often and are rarely held accountable.
I am curious as to what the — ” legal impediments to the entire story being made public ” are ?
Sounds like this story needs much more attention and justice and I would also be willing to contribute towards it coming to light.
Do you have a high powered attorney and if not is there one out there who can help Barbara expose the rot and get justice finally ?
Something stinks to high heaven.
I appreciate your honesty and being brave to come out with the truth. I believe there are many more stories like this one that just get buried away and no justice or healthy outcome occurs.
Considering the popularity National has enjoyed and the fact the public lap up the media’s dribble – I’d say the NZ has the government it deserves.
its the government the property speculators want .there wealth is dependent on the status quo. homelessness poverty is required. our current system is stuffed , broken and honestly i hope a crash comes new Zealand is a house of cards and it needs to collapse because we need a complete reset just like Iceland. we are seeing the signs keys bolted for reasons unknown ?interest rates globally are rising and debt is accelerating fingers crossed bubble land blows up.
the national govt was never popular – it was the manipulative polls that had people thinking that way – can’t wait for the general election this year!
No country deserves the likes of our present govt.
You think that the Natz are popular ? They are sliding down faster than
grease on a hot tin roof.
Please go through this article and properly proofread it. The sloppy typos diminishes the content’s importance.
Wonderful writer -but we are talking about a suicide here think that’s a little more important than bad grammar and a few typos…
Writer – what diminishes the – ” content’s importance ” is not sloppy typos, it is righteous; judgmental; petty people who focus on the twigs instead of the trees.
The social cost of now having to support this poor womans children amd the psychological damage they face after her suicide…ongoing therapy, lost potential, risk taking behaviour….omg WINZ for the sake of 20k or 5k you have now cost our country and tax payer potentially 100k +
I am both proud and devastated that Wendy Shoebridge was/is my daughter – proud to have had such a wonderful daughter – devastated at the monstrous treatment that Wendy, such a vulnerable human being, received at the hands of MSD. The above story does not mention that Wendy was absolved of any fraudulent behaviour, or that MSD admitted that the letter sent to her was a mistake and should not have been sent, and that Wendy owed them nothing.
And what has been printed does not even scratch the surface of the whole story – MSD continues to act in a monstrous fashion. Both the directives and the culture come from the top down.
Why would my post be awaiting moderation if it speaks the truth? Does the truth require moderating?
Yep I know people who suffer from depression and the Average WINZ case worker isnt qualified to deal with them in fact we have a couple of workers in our area who really do push people to the brink. What gets me is other agencies know about these case workers, however they still have jobs and make people lives a living hell. I have to have there help from time to time as I have two chronic long time illness that relapse and remit and trying to deal with them on my own when I am relapsing which includes cognitive difficulties ( I have Neuroimmune problems) is next to impossible usually 100 questions on a sign up form, whats up with that , that in its self can stress someone who is already unwell. The whole system is not set up for those who have any kind of illness or disability. There staff are not qualified to make judgements on people or have any dealings with those who are clearly unwell and they will continue to get it wrong. In a nutshell this department doesnt have a clue.
When my wife went overseas to visit her family (family paid for the trip) she was the main beneficiary at winz. I was not able to become the main beneficiary unless I signed a form separating me from my wife. So winz policy is directly responsible for broken marriages.
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