Finally something to cheer from Labour (warning – it’s tiny but what else do we have?)

By
Martyn Bradbury
-
21
6

Sigh.

Ok, first, the good news.

The arcane and spiteful penalty to punish solo mothers for not naming the father of their kid has gone and the number of these mean spirited and counter productive sanctions are actually dramatically falling…

Recommendations on welfare system reform released

Beneficiaries who work will be able to earn more before their pay is docked, and the sanction against solo mothers who don’t name the father of their children will be scrapped, as the government begins its overhaul of the welfare system.

…so that’s great. What is fucking woeful however is that so many of the other recommendations have simply been ignored or put off…

Key recommendations of the welfare expert advisory group:

  • Increase main benefits by between 12 percent and 47 percent
  • Remove some benefit obligations and sanctions
  • Fully index all income support payments and thresholds annually to movements in average wages of prices, whichever is the greater
  • Index accommodation supplement rates to movements in housing costs
  • Consider introducing a living alone payment that contributes to the additional costs of adults living alone
  • Reform Working for Families
  • Reform supplementary assistance and hardship assistance so they are adequate
  • Ensure sufficient resourcing for frontline services
  • Help recipients of sole parent support return to part-time work when their youngest child is six years old
  • Prioritise a reduction in outstanding benefit debt through sustainable repayments and minimise the creation of overpayments, including reviewing recoverable hardship assistance grants
  • Instigate a cross-government approach to managing debt to government agencies

…so the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us will still live in poverty, still live in fear of mass surveillance from welfare agencies and still get dealt to by people at those welfare agencies who see beating up on poor people as a gleeful privilege.

Luckily for the Government they have a wedding to plan and the middle classes attention will quickly slip away from their egalitarian pretensions to what wedding dress designer Jacinda will be wearing.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

What is the point of calling for these huge inquires into welfare, into tax, into mental health and into the Afghan war crimes if you have sweet fuck all intention of actually implementing them?

Voting for Labour so we get a slightly less spiteful version of National in power is as good as it gets is it?

God defend NZ because no other bugger will.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

21 COMMENTS

  1. Oh, hip hip hooray!!! The Wage Slave Labour Party is so left wing! The poor, downtrodden renters, homeless and wage slaves who I interact with a little as possible are saved!!! Hip hooray!

    There is NO goD, Bomber. There is NO Zealand… the sticks and stones era cometh… 😉

  2. This Government are doing very little for seniors; – after they had promised us elders cheaper dental treatments as we cant afford the costs today, and food prices are skyrocketing; – surely they could take GST off basic essential foods at least.

  3. It’s pretty significant that they released this report on a Friday – the traditional method of burying a major announcement, and the surest sign that the government is as keen on these reforms as the capital gains tax.

    Looks like New Zealand is destined to be stuck with Neo-Liberalism and the attendent misery for several more election cycles. Jacinda’s vote winning magic will keep Labour for another 7 years and then we’ll have National back by then. Our only hope is the kids, hoepfully they will embarass Labour and the Greens into action – or alternatively, electoral oblivion

    • Aaron, If the best that we can expect is 7 more years of Labour followed by another stint of National, then there really is no hope for us. The prediction is that if we do nothing for the next 12 years,we are the walking dead and you are saying that those 12 years are accounted for already.

  4. “Beneficiaries who work will be able to earn more before their pay is docked, and the sanction against solo mothers who don’t name the father of their children will be scrapped, as the government begins its overhaul of the welfare system.”

    Before anyone gets overly excited about earning ‘more’ while being on a benefit, perhaps do a reality check.

    Increasing the amount that is presently used, I think around $80 per week, which beneficiaries are allowed to earn ‘on top of’ their benefits, that will not necessarily help that many at all.

    This may only be an improvement for those who do not need Temporary Additional Support, the Accommodation Supplement and the likes to survive.

    While the main benefit may not be affected, those that earn extra, they will still have their Temporary Additional Support, in some cases even the Accommodation Supplement and Disability Allowance reduced.

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/index.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/jobseeker-support/changes-and-reviews-jobseeker-support/treatment-of-income-01.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/jobseeker-support/changes-and-reviews-jobseeker-support/income-test-01.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/jobseeker-support/changes-and-reviews-jobseeker-support/examples-of-income-assessment-01.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/income/definition-of-income/index.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/core-policy/income/types-of-income/index.html

    Supplements that may be affected by assets or income:
    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/temporary-additional-support/qualifications.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/temporary-additional-support/chargeable-income-01.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/accommodation-supplement/assets-beneficiaries-01.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/accommodation-supplement/chargeable-income-non-beneficiaries-01.html

    Also is a Disability Allowance only paid up to a certain income per annum:
    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/extra-help/disability-allowance/income-test-01.html

    https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/deskfile/extra-help-information/disability-allowance-tables/disability-allowance-rates-19/disability-allowance-income-limits-current.html

    The benefit system is a COMPLEX BEAST, so while some may get a little extra if they are allowed to work, many will NOT, they will actually have Temporary Additional Support, in some cases also the Disability Allowance and Accommodation Supplement cut in return for any extra earned or saved (to turn into an ‘asset’).

    We have heard all this before, the media may report nice headlines, the actual detail often looks very much different. They give with one hand and take with the other.

    • Good points Marc.

      They need to stop the punitive effects of ‘limiting’ employment for people.

      Example home help, hard to get because for example students can’t work more than $200 p/w before punitive measures come in on student loans & living expenses, $80 for beneficiaries it seems … try living on $200 p/w in Auckland!!!! Need to encourage part time work by not being so punitive to locals on benefits and student loans!

      Still remember paying secondary tax on my pitiful earnings as a waiter, while studying. At least in those days though, there was a decent amount of part time work, reasonably paid, and you could get a run down (damp, mouldy villa for the wokies) for $70 per room… nowadays Villa rooms start at $250 p/w per room but have mod cons but massive shortage of them!

      Now you can’t afford to eat and it costs $30 p/w in public transport to A/T to go to the Salvation Army for food parcels and probably $50+ p/w per house in rates to the council for our wonderful services to America’s billionaires and cruise ships, $25 p/w for the water, $30 p/w for the insurance… you get the picture…

      Maybe instead of getting Cullen and Rebstock types who set the benefit levels of work, you actually start from amounts of money it takes to live on as the amount you can earn on a benefit before sanctions… and work out how much it costs in public amenity upgrades and services to get a nursing assistant and her family of 4 in from overseas vs having a beneficiary earn $600 p/w more untaxed (in Auckland for example) and actually being a happier and healthier more equal society for it!

  5. “What is the point of calling for these huge inquires into welfare, into tax, into mental health and into the Afghan war crimes if you have sweet fuck all intention of actually implementing them?”

    Best and most appropriate part and question of the blog post above, I think.

      • Also notice so many more incentives for overseas workers than locals.

        For example free flights to Wellington for a job interviews have been made for overseas candidates, yet to see anything like that offered to local applicants for jobs with big marketing campaigns to get locals to work for firms.

        Also $5000 relocation fees for overseas teachers… if they offered $5000 + all the fees they pay to third parties, to local teachers per year to live in some mouldy town they might get more takers….

        likewise for the doctors… work out the recruitment costs and fees for recruitment, middle men, frauds, inquiries and so forth for overseas recruitment of medical staff, vs just give that amount to the local doctors and nurses to work in unpopular places or to keep working in the job or study it in the first place…

        …also might need to solve how to retain decent doctors (local and overseas) with the bureaucrat penny pushers at the helm of DHB’s and middle management… http://werewolf.co.nz/2014/12/public-health-the-silent-crisis/

        Part the issue with neoliberalism is that money is siphoned off into third parties at every turn so just adding more money is not the answer… working out where it is being siphoned to and giving it back to the workers in wages, and better use of resources, is the first step!

  7. The reason we only get a lighter version of National is because such a large percentage of the population like to crap on the rest of New Zealanders. We aren’t a liberal country, and I full expect nothing to come of the cannabis referendum either because we have a majority of New Zealanders who are still living in 1975

    • So true Esoteric Pineapples, unfortunately i have never quite worked out why.
      Maybe in there sad little world believing that they are one rung further up the ladder gives them the right to dump on anyone they perceive as below them???

  8. How can the government afford to increase benefits when our entire economic strategy for 30 years is to have as many low waged workers and beneficiaries or ‘income free’ migrants, as possible?

    It has got so bad that NZ even imports in so many people who are on low wages (or have no jobs) and for each person on a low wage job they can then sponsor in their entire families to go to school, get medical care here, etc… and once getting residency can qualify for social welfare too.

    AKA being a nurse assistant who can then bring in your husband and multiple children while having more children in NZ while they work in an arguably simple unskilled job https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12203129

    (p.s I’m not saying this job is not important and no disrespect to the family in question who are legally here due to our government rules and policies, but shouldn’t warning bells be ringing as it is not exactly be hard to grow this skill in NZ?

    Maybe if the government ditched neoliberal ideology and instead supported locals to do the work as they used to, instead of expecting youth to spend years on a tertiary degree or diploma and support themselves to go into jobs that pay poorly and rely on overseas labour to keep the wages forever down and then wonders why NZ youth go on benefits instead and take drugs and why suicide/mental illness is growing here? Maybe they should question why industry supporting part time, 9-3pm workers when the kids are at school maybe a joke for the low waged)

    Work out the Ponzi, you get one nurse assistant from overseas, then then NZ has to support 2 extra adults with health care, housing, transport, waste water, etc and 3 kids or more for health care, maternity and schooling and the above services… which necessitates more teacher and medical and housing and transport shortages for existing beneficiaries and others… it’s an immigration Ponzi, pure and simple and the people most benefiting are of of course immigration lawyers, ‘hire’ firms, banks, financial industry, airlines, and private aged/health care.

    Some of those industries also seem desperate to bring in the aged parents of migrants and lobby the government for that, so we might be able to add in 4 aged parents who qualify for free healthcare, super, gold card, aged care ($1000p/w just for the aged care homes alone, yippee!).

    Remember the neoliberal fable that NZ needed the third highest immigration in the world because we needed to have more talented, educated, young people to support us in our retirement… ah, not sure how the current Ponzi is working out when it seems to be the opposite and for every low waged worker we get entire families of beneficiaries needing NZ support and the aged parents set to make a come back if the lawyers get their way.

    And of course we haven’t even got to the criminals who get free jail time on behalf of the tax payer like Sroubek , who got his ex wife citizenship/permanent residency from Russia, and now keeping the legal profession in fees with his demands and would not surprise me if his mum seems keen to get on the Ponzi too..

    For those that think MDMA is a harmless drug…https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111987227/canterbury-teenager-heath-morris-jailed-for-13-years-6-months-years-for-oliver-johnstons-murder

    Drug use growing in NZ judging from the waste water..
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/04/meth-coke-and-mdma-police-reveal-how-the-drugs-are-in-our-wastewater.html

    NZ under neoliberalism, exports record profits and imports in the low waged and beneficiaries to compete for NZ’s dwindling tax dollars.

    Don’t worry though, NZ can borrow more money from overseas and sell off (or give away) more government assets to pay for it!

    Work harder NZ!!!

    (And for current beneficiaries, give yourself around 10 years of welfare if you are lucky, because it ain’t exactly sustainable, the NZ strategy).

    Ponzi’s always burst!

    • 10,700 on the state housing list in 2019… single figures in the 1970’s

      The wokies seemingly support the process of getting more beneficiaries and low waged into NZ to compete against current beneficiaries and poor for housing and jobs, you have to wonder how the so called lefties and wokies are so in agreement with the right wingers to overload resources (and pay industry guaranteed rates to build more houses on a Ponzi like scheme of increasing demand x 6 for supply)?

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/388559/demand-for-state-housing-continues-to-outstrip-supply

    • 50 Chinese workers x $43,000 to middle men sponsored without any jobs means $2,150,000 of profits! And similar types used to have Poutama Training Institute…

      https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018681217/chinese-migrant-workers-we-ve-been-cheated

      NZ government are hopelessly out of touch with what is really going on and what is driving homelessness, housing shortages, increased inequality here (as well as wrecking NZ reputation by allowing every con man/women in town to operate here and rip people off and allow ‘open’ and cheap visas to help that rip off others) and dangle benefits like permanent residency within a few years and free welfare for life to encourage the low waged to come to NZ. ).

  9. Waste of time all his nastyness we already know unemployment drops when our economy is going well. We do not need these nasty national party measures the system works there is is no need to be punitive but unfortunately its all part of the DNA we only have to look at pull the benefit shes done well thanks to our system. People need help not a kick in the guts which they got for 9 years and they got nationals no frills housing policy = no house, live in your car we are selling our state houses and land to the chinese our best friends at the moment who are making us rich.

  10. Not sure the neoliberal led social housing is the magic bullet…

    https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018693313/social-housing-tenants-feel-like-second-class-citizens

    So from a state house or private rental, to a room with shared facilities with 54 other ‘high’ needs individuals and their hanger on’s for social housing which the government pays 3+ million for in subsidies… does not sound like you can go to the tenancy tribunal either as they are being referred to Community Housing Regulatory Authority…. and 50 complaints are needed to get action very slowly…

    This sounds very UK, Grenfell like where industry is getting in on the ‘social’ housing routs and money flows through so many intermediaries and so many people on the pay role but sadly the recipients seem to receive less and less… while the tax payers pay more and more to ‘help’ the poor.

  12. Your ferocity is apt.

    Everything is second to our emergency, climate change. Y’know, only, by my pedantic 50-something bachelor pedantic calculation, 100 times at least the emergency of WW 2.

  13. NZ’s heart lies in the poorest of us, just as our brain lies in … mortgages.

    Tony Blair said the proving rightness of America lay in people always try to go there. He was a Labour PM? Hope the Catholic crap helps him. 10 years as PM!

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