Carol from WINZ is ready to see you now.
There are two wonderful things that have come out of the meth hysteria fiasco.
The first is that it burnt EVERYONE! Normally a social policy abortion like this only burns the poorest and weakest amongst us meaning the remedy is given as much urgency as a sleeping sloth going for a jog.
This hurt as many middle class property speculators as it did beneficiaries. The seething resentment so many private landlords must feel at the sheer scale of all that money they threw away while ex cop meth decontamination companies milked their fear and greed reached a high enough level for something must be done intervention from the State.
So because this hurt everyone, it took just one interview with Peter Gluckman to kill off an entire industry overnight!
The other great thing this meth hysteria fiasco has given us is the right to challenge other sacred cows of the establishment. If they were SOOOOOOO wrong about the meth fiasco, maybe they are wrong about a whole bunch of other hysterical bullshit?
What about the over the top and aggressive security outside WINZ Offices?
Private security who vet and stop beneficiaries from entering any WINZ office were placed there after the Ashburton shootings.
Personally I’m always surprised that there aren’t more shootings outside these cruelty shops or that the WINZ Offices themselves don’t become permanent targets for graffiti.
MSD argue they should be able to hide the level of threats, yet the actual rate of abuse…
Trespass orders in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch WINZ offices increased from 114 in 2016 to 170 the following year.
Over the same period, 11 incidents ended in injury to at least one MSD staff member across the three regions.
…for the cost is completely out of whack…
Evergreen International NZ has won an $80 million contract to supply security services to the Ministry of Social Development, just six months after the private equity-owned firm acquired the Armourguard Security business in New Zealand for $1.
The national two year plus two year contract includes provision of security guards, monitoring of security and fire alarms in ministry offices and Child Youth and Family homes, and support for monitoring systems.
Evergreen, which is owned by New York-based Evergreen Capital, acquired the Armourguard business from NYSE-listed Tyco last year. The value of the transaction was given as $1 according to a note in the accounts of Sensormatic New Zealand, the immediate owner of Tyco New Zealand. The note didn’t say whether there was a debt component to the transaction.
The firm, which had 1,500 employees, takes over as national provider for services that were previously supplied by a number of companies, a spokeswoman for the ministry said. She declined to give details of the contract, including whether any cost savings were achieved.
According to the request for proposal documents released via the government’s GETS tender website, the ministry currently employs about 162 guards at 144 Work & Income sites.
…that was 2014 prices, Christ knows what it is now. Even at those rates, $80million for 11 incidents seems like a Housing NZ meth hysteria level of self-interested incompetence.
Teachers would love to have only 11 incidents a year plus half the security cost…
Beaten, bloodied, bashed and bruised – even the classroom isn’t safe as teachers across New Zealand face violent assaults from their own students.
Last year, a shocking 580 primary school students and 119 secondary school students were stood down for assaulting school staff.
The argument has always been that it was the previous Government’s awful policies that made beneficiaries violent and not the sadistic staff, so with a change of Government and a replacement of the puritanical and cruel policy implementation, why the huge security still?
If we can admit Housing NZ meth policy was an abortion, why can’t we also check the neoliberal welfare agencies other sacred cows like inane WINZ Office security?
How can WINZ staff receive a level of security that Teachers would cry for?
The reason of course is that it’s not just a policy thing, the staff at WINZ have a special level of sadism in them which makes for a toxic culture the new Government are trying (and failing) to respond to.
The real reason security can’t be cut back is because these staff are still toxic and are still creating the justification for violent responses from vulnerable beneficiaries.
Perhaps stripping them of their bully boy security will force these staff members to treat beneficiaries humanly and not punitively?
The really obvious question is…why not pay beneficiaries to access the internet + scan documents and NEVER come into branch?
This reduces security to cyber only, frees up staff to do their job, and reduces office size, offices can be moved to cheaper locations. Makes the cost of transport non existent.
A “smart” contact perhaps using blockchain tech seals the deal.
You are raising a good point.
It is bizarre to the extreme, that WINZ and the bosses at MSD are up to this day not including internet access costs in their bizarre, non defined living costs that persons dependent on benefits need to cover. You can still claim costs for a landline phone if you need one for health and safety reasons, but NOT internet access costs!?
Ultimately that is another policy failure, as the government should run a benefit system that actually pays benefits that people can life off, not needing endless top up supplements, that are falling under a harsh, unforgiving ‘abatement regime’, once one component of various benefit components may be increased by a few dollars.
This is what has hit those with Temporary Additional Support and Special Benefit receipt, who need that to survive. The government increased the Accommodation Supplement, and once a review comes, the worst off get their TAS and SB reduced.
So much for ‘helping’ those in need. I am waiting with baited breath to see and hear whether the so called ‘winter payments’ starting 1 July will also lead to reductions of TAS or SB, it would be perverse.
I am waiting with ‘bated breath’, of course, always.
Hey Marc, I was anticipating that too so wrote to MSD ages ago and have a reply which I’ve held onto (because of course they can’t be trusted…) However, the relevant bit:
“The Winter Energy Payment will not affect any of your other payments and you do not need to declare it on your Temporary Additional Support renewal form”
Here is the proof for those that have doubted me, showing that the increase in Accommodation Supplement as of 1 April 2018 has led to those on Special Benefit and TAS getting that supplementary payment reduced:
The Accommodation Supplement is considered ‘chargeable income’:
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/special-benefit/chargeable-income-01.html
(same as wages/salaries and net main benefit, and so forth)
The calculation of SB goes like this, TAS is a little different:
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/special-benefit/assessment-of-income-deficiency-01.html
Allowable costs for Jobseeker Benefit:
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/special-benefit/allowable-costs-01.html
(see how it includes landline phone, not internet!)
And the bizarre ‘Standard Costs’ assessment:
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/special-benefit/standard-costs-01.html
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/deskfile/extra-help-information/special-benefit-tables/jobseeker-support-current-01.html
So despite of increasing the Accommodation Supplement, those most in need will not be any better off, perhaps only a little depending of their circumstances.
I hope Louis will read this.
“Personally I’m always surprised that there aren’t more shootings outside these cruelty shops or that the WINZ Offices themselves don’t become permanent targets for graffiti.”
Perhaps it is because WINZ hold no cash or cigarettes, it is easier to get something by robbing a dairy, a grocery or bottle shop and so forth, than bother risking your neck lashing out at WINZ staff.
Only a change in policy and in the so called ‘leadership’ at the top of MSD and WINZ can lead to change, and that is not to be expected, at least for now, as it seems.
There are earlier figures on abuse, assaults and the likes, that were alleged to have happened by WINZ clients to WINZ staff:
1. MSD, OIA rqst, MHES, WAA, other support services, issues, reply, anon, 26.02.2015.pdf (unmarked copy):
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/msd-oia-rqst-mhes-waa-other-support-services-issues-reply-anon-26-02-2015.pdf
2. MSD, OIA rqst, MHES, WAA, other support services, reply, anon, hilit, 26.02.15.pdf:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/msd-oia-rqst-mhes-waa-other-support-services-reply-anon-hilit-26-02-15.pdf
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/11/27/msds-selective-and-poor-responses-to-new-oia-requests-on-benefits-advisors-reports-mental-health-and-sole-parent-employment-services/
And it is up to government to pay beneficiaries what they need to survive, simply blaming it on the toxic culture dished out by some staff is not addressing the real issue, I fear:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2018/05/23/social-security-benefit-rates-in-new-zealand-set-at-will-by-governments-ignoring-socio-economic-realities-and-evidence/
(published 23 May 2018)
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/social-security-benefit-rates-in-n-z-set-at-will-by-govt-ignoring-evidence-nzsjb-23-05-18.pdf
(as on 23 May 2018)
While it’s nice to hear about we ‘vulnerable beneficiaries’ it would be polite if you mentioned those who really are threatening as their modus operandi to the point that they don’t have to go into any WINZ office. Elite scum. I’ve envied them.
And the sheer gormlessness of some of the ‘case managers’. I have no idea what their OTJ training is but they should never be out in front of their client victims with the levels of uncertainty so many display.
Plus the staff turnover…
Almost, al-most I could feel sorry for them – but only after I’ve wished they could be facing the terror from the ‘wrong’ side of the desk.
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