The biggest abuser of the poor is the State – not loan sharks

By
Martyn Bradbury
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6
1

Carol from WINZ is ready to see you now

Low-income people turning to loan sharks because ‘they’re nicer’
Low-income people find it easier to get a loan from a payday lender’s welcoming customer service team than to front up and ask for government assistance, a researcher says.

High-interest lending has been in the spotlight since Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced higher fines for those who do not comply with responsible lending requirements – and a cap on interest rates and fees.

As part of the announcement, Ardern said she wanted the first port-of-call for low-income earners to be government channels or low-interest microfinance operators.

But Jess Berentson-Shaw, of thinktank The Workshop, said her research had shown that people went to loan sharks because their relationship with them was better than with Work and Income.

By contrast, a lender that wanted to make money out of people would be kind and welcoming – and the call centres were sometimes staffed with people from the community.

Auckland Action against Poverty said the Ministry of Social Development’s loan practises via Work and Income were “crippling”.

Half a million people are in debt to the Ministry of Social Development, owning a total $1.5 billion.

Most of the debt came from overpayments and a smaller portion from recoverable advances for clothing, furniture and petrol.

Weekly repayments are set by the ministry, with some low-income people expected to pay up to $80 a week from their benefits.

The reality that people in poverty go to loan sharks because they’re kinder than WINZ is another example of the counter productive fuckwittery of neoliberal social service agencies – just like meth hysteria, synthetic cannabis deaths & prisoner reoffending rates, it is the neoliberal public service who are the biggest threats to the poor.

It is the State who is the greatest cause of damage to these people and the sadistic staff who gleefully treat them with contempt.

Labour can pat itself on the back for curtailing loan sharks, but what about their own agencies who cripple with debt? Unfortunately the new Government is simply too gutless to challenge those toxic cultures.

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6 COMMENTS

  1. The problem is national changed the benefit system before you could get advances for essential household items like a washing machine and the amount was capped so was food grants. But the last government have allowed too many people to get into lots of debt this is actually very irresponsible and stupid. Now the entire benefit system needs and overhaul.

  2. And if you need a new fridge or washer, WINZ no longer accept quotes for applicances by Fisher and Paykel (NZ made) or other manufacturers, they pressure you to buy cheaper and crappier products made in China by Haier!

    So much for supporting NZ industries and workers, so much for a fair balance allowed to the consumer and beneficiary.

  3. Where”s Ebenezer Scrooge too – Christmas is coming?????

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Scrooge

    Ebenezer Scrooge
    Marley’s Ghost-John Leech, 1843.jpg
    Ebenezer Scrooge encounters “Jacob Marley’s ghost” in Dickens’s novella, A Christmas Carol

    Ebenezer Scrooge is the protagonist of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novella.

    Scrooge is a cold-hearted miser who despises Christmas. Dickens describes him thus: “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.”

    His last name has come into the English language as a byword for miserliness and misanthropy. The tale of his redemption by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in the English-speaking world. Ebenezer Scrooge is arguably both one of the most famous characters created by Dickens and one of the most famous in English literature.

    Scrooge’s catchphrase, “Bah! Humbug!” is often used to express disgust with many modern Christmas traditions, which portrays his attitude toward charity and christmas.

  4. The Guvmint makes a slurplus of $5.5b. Welfare Beneficiaries owe $1.5b. Labour has generated a slurplus by underpaying & signing beneficaries up to more debt unecessarily.

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