A number of employers Unite deals with are already beginning redundancy processes with jobs set to be terminated as soon as the subsidy runs out. We are aware that other unions are reporting the same scenario.
Over the last ten years, the number of people applying for emergency benefits and accessing emergency food agencies have been exploding.
This reflects the very low level of benefits in New Zealand and the fact that the agency responsible for delivering support has been governed by a culture of denial of entitlements.
This culture was imposed on WINZ in the mid 2000s and led to a halving in the percentage of unemployed people accessing benefits, many choosing to try and survive with no income at all, rather than face ritual humiliation, belittling and bullying from caseworkers.
The Household Labour Force Survey measures the number of people officially unemployed, as well as a broader number of people who are “jobless”.
Between 1990 and 2003 the number of people on benefits never dropped below 64% of the jobless number. Over the next decade, it dropped to only 18% of the “jobless” number. It went from 120% of the unemployed number to only 45% in 2013.
No explanation has ever been provided as to how this was achieved without denying people their legal entitlement.
These numbers are behind the hunger and homelessness associated with joblessness over the last seven years when unemployment was officially relatively low. But if you were unemployed and couldn’t access any form of entitlement then misery was the inevitable result.
The new mass unemployment that will be being unleashed over the next six months demands a complete culture change.
But the exposure that WINZ is still unlawfully telling people who have received redundancy payments that they must exhaust all their savings before accessing welfare is proof that this culture has not changed at all. Heads should roll at the top if needed to ensure this change.
Five urgent steps are needed:
- A doubling of the value of the unemployment benefit over the next six months at least. This was done in Australia by a right-wing government and should be copied here. The current benefit is worth only 20% of the average wage compared to 40% before the 1990 benefit cuts. Even after those cuts, the adult unemployment benefit was worth 33% of the average wage. It has been allowed to steadily decline in value because it was only ever increased by the consumer price index rather than average wages like superannuation has been.
- Extending benefits to migrant workers who have been brought to New Zealand with the promise of work and education opportunities and now have lost their jobs. The government is currently forcing thousands of migrant workers to starve. This is morally repugnant and it is no exaggeration to say it will lead to unnecessary deaths.
- The income people should be able to earn before benefits are cut should be radically increased to at least levels recommended by the Welfare Experts Advisory Group. If the government is serious about trying to protect workers from redundancies and help unemployed people back into work, workers need to be able to work part-time and receive enough support to make that affordable.
- All benefit entitlements should be individualised so workers can access benefits even if the partner is working. The current system doesn’t reflect 21st-century families. It actually destroys families rather than protects them.
- The $75 weekly in-work tax credit for a child should be extended to all families. This will ensure families accessing a benefit during this crisis period aren’t doubly penalised by having their payment taken off them. It will also ensure a real increase for current beneficiary households denied this entitlement.
Governments, both Labour-led and National-led have ignored the welfare of people on benefits for years. They have treated them as second-class citizens, better kept out of sight and out of mind. The government is about to find out that this will no longer be possible.
The best way to increase wages is for the migrant workers that have been imported by employers to drive down costs is to return to their countries of origin – this will have a twofold affect by increasing employment opportunities for New Zealanders and allow wages to rise – my brother in-law works for a company that sub-contracts to Chorus – his original company lost out on a contract because their tender was too high – in order to get a job doing exactly the same thing he had to accept a $20,000 pay cut – NZ trained and 40 years experience – all due to Chorus setting up a company called Vision Stream who use new migrant sub contractors who then employ largely untrained migrant labour on “codes” – piecework – this has been all over the news on a number of occasions but the rort is still going on – the union that he belongs too has done nothing to stop this – the work visa rorts need to be stopped so Kiwis can get better wages and will free up much needed affordable housing – the companies who employ these migrants on work visa’s need to be held accountable for their repatriation not the people of New Zealand – fewer people on benefits and higher wages for Kiwis means there will be more money available to help the truly needy.
Well said, Mike.
‘This culture [of attempting to deny people of their entitlements] was imposed on WINZ in the mid 2000s’
You could have added ‘by the Helen Clark so-called Labour government’.
‘The new mass unemployment that will be being unleashed over the next six months demands a complete culture change.’
I absolutely agree with you.
However, it should be noted that the Adern government has the same fundamental philosophy as the Clark government.
‘The aim of Closing the Gaps was to reduce the most visible disparities in socio-economic status and opportunity between Māori and Pacific Islander groups and other groups. The policy had a social development and social inclusion approach to social policy. Closing the Gaps aimed to balance individual and collective rights and responsibilities by integrating Māori and Pacific Islanders more extensively into the paid labour market.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closing_the_Gaps
That is worth repeating: ‘more extensively into the paid labour market’.
You wrote: ‘Governments, both Labour-led and National-led have ignored the welfare of people on benefits for years. They have treated them as second-class citizens, better kept out of sight and out of mind.’
Well, actually the Adern government didn’t entirely ignore the welfare of people. They made a slight increase in the accessibility of ‘ambulances at the bottom of the cliff’ via a reduction in the fees to see a doctors.
The shocking state of the nation’s teeth and the extraordinarily high cost of dental care are another matter -put into the ‘too hard basket’ by the Adern government. Expect greater pressure on understaffed and underfunded hospital dental facilities, as that ‘ambulance at the bottom of the cliff’ is accessed by more and more desperate people unable to afford private dentistry.
Repeating what you said: ‘Governments, both Labour-led and National-led have ignored the welfare of people on benefits for years. They have treated them as second-class citizens, better kept out of sight and out of mind. The government is about to find out that this will no longer be possible.’
Yes, the [Adern] government will find out that ignoring the welfare of the people will not be possible, just as they will find out that ignoring the welfare of Mother Earth will not be possible. But not just yet.
In the meantime the Adern government has the welfare of the international bankers and corporations (along with the welfare of local opportunists) to consider; and we know who has the greatest pull on the strings of power. And it’s not us.
All I can suggest is that anyone who has meticulously ignored all the warnings until now should wake up and get on with preparations for self-survival because the government won’t be there when you need them most.
In
‘
To stop the massive spike in unemployment the government should send all the temporary work residents home and cancel the work visas for students. Only have foreign students who can afford to come to NZ and study and not work. This would free up work opportunities in NZ to NZ’s growing unemployed and the tens of thousands of NZ permanent residents and citizens returning to NZ and currently signing up on the dole.
Some of the people got a NZ passport decades ago and then just see NZ as an easy place to make some money and have never lived here or contributed but can still pop up out of the blue, https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121302846/colour-drained-from-real-estate-agents-face-as-he-realised-hed-been-defrauded-of-120k-in-sim-hijacking-scam.
NZ has to urgency stop the constant giving away of NZ residency and citizenship due to constant lobbying by self interested groups (currently unite union and migrant workers), short term thinking, aka the children of people who never lived here are able to come back to NZ and commit scams and use our welfare and health system for the rest of their lives much more easily on the back of a NZ passport they can claim without much effort.
Meanwhile everyone else is facing shortages from the world’s middle class rushing to NZ to get the massive benefits to them that no other country provides for laughable skills no other country wants.
We don’t now even have enough water for all the current residents in Auckland without restrictions going into winter.
We also have a massive state housing wait list, which will balloon out of control come June when all those that were encouraged by the woke not to pay rent with their housing allowances, will then join the state house queue as desperately needing state and social housing, along with the other 16,000 currently waiting, the newcomers coming back to NZ and now the unions idea is to give the temp migrants the housing, dole and benefits too and have a massive competition of poverty.
The idea of then allowing non NZ citizens and even more people to sign up to welfare in NZ (at double the rates) on the back of a Ponzi scheme, take out job is laughable.
The temp workers are not that poor, aka usually spending tens of thousands to come to NZ in the first place and are middle class or at least able to access sizeable amounts of money before they come. They then cry crocodile tears and take up resources that vunerable people in NZ miss out.
Queues are everywhere from maternity services, to justice, to child protective services, to social work to family courts after the relationships break up.
The poverty in NZ is often on the backs of bringing all their love interests, having kids and bringing aged parents to NZ before they gain appropriate residency status, and paying back the job or just being on NZ low wages.
Low wage ‘manager’ jobs in fast food worker and supermarkets are not enough to live on in NZ and that is not being addressed because rather than unions increasing minimum wages to help the vulnerable, and free up better resources for beneficiaries here, they are instead doing the opposite and creating more workers competing for low wage jobs.
Pretty sure OZ can afford higher benefits because they make sure that new residents can’t access OZ welfare as they come into the country and it takes a long time to access OZ welfare if you are not an OZ citizen.
NZ needs to start to do the same. No lessons learnt from the Tarrant situation and the growing dysfunctional migrants coming to NZ (due not to our kind face, but our lazy bums on seats one) and being supported here, while they commit social harm on others and at the expense of everyone else living here.
Q Why Are The Most Desperate Ignored In The Budget?
A. Because they are too busy propping up the Ponzi schemes operating here who get maximum media time while the vulnerable without massive lobbying get less and less exposure and funding!
These people seem a lot more vulnerable in society.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/305949/child-who-has-lived-in-van-has-message-for-pm
A start to help the vulnerable is to cancel the NZ citizenship of those that come to NZ and then commit crimes here.
It’s cheaper to pay people on temp permits to leave when their jobs go, than to have them here taking up resources in NZ, that we don’t have.
Many of the migrants that commit small crimes and get off in NZ, then seem to go on and commit even bigger ones. If you have few skills in NZ of course crime becomes a way to get by, we already have enough local criminals that could do with the rehabilitation rather than adding more and more criminals to the mix in our jails and justice system.
AKA Sroubek committed crimes all the way through their NZ stay, while getting more visas for their spouses or use NZ visas to attract more victims. They then commit even bigger crimes. Time there was a lot more rigour in allowing so many people to come to NZ, give them massive sense of entitlement and let them do whatever they want here.
Judge: Extraordinary that killer Rohit Singh maintained fiction during murder trial
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12254105
Dunedin doctor Venod Skantha found guilty of murder of Amber-Rose Rush
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12288940
West Auckland stabbing: Man remanded in custody after been charged with murder
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/114976886/west-auckland-stabbing-man-remanded-in-custody-after-been-charged-with-murder
Child abuser wins right to stay in New Zealand for humanitarian reasons
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/84891031/child-abuser-wins-right-to-stay-in-new-zealand-for-humanitarian-reasons
Child abuse dad avoids deportation on humanitarian grounds to stay with family
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/76059417/
Iain Lees-Galloway chose ‘lazy’ option granting residency to drink-driver – Simon Bridges
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/10/iain-lees-galloway-chose-lazy-option-granting-residency-to-drink-driver-simon-bridges.html
New resident convicted of sex offending twice, won’t be deported
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11837608
Judge’s difficult sentencing of a former refugee who won’t stop offending
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/111480343/judges-difficult-sentencing-of-a-refugee-who-wont-stop-offending
Rapist wins case to be allowed to stay in NZ
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/327784/rapist-wins-case-to-be-allowed-to-stay-in-nz
Migrant worker speaks out against exploitation at rural Reporoa holiday park
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118329341/migrant-worker-speaks-out-against-exploitation-at-rural-reporoa-holiday-park
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/110581372/obsessive-exboyfriend-rohit-singh-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-murder-of-arishma-chand?rm=a
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/72529233/Mandeep-Singh-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-for-central-Auckland-murder
Cigarette smuggling case: Defendants keep names secret to protect children, employees
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/115014183/cigarette-smuggling-case-defendants-keep-names-secret-to-protect-children-employees
Auckland building boss charged with fraud after investigation into illegal labour
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12005146
Lawyers’ fees restrained by police after Auckland drug bust
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11842563
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/82387108/did-fraud-suspect-joanne-harrison-approve-her-own-leave-then-flee-nz
The businessman and the stolen honey: Sheng Sun sentenced over 480kg mānuka heist
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12077932
William Yan AKA Bill Liu to keep NZ citizenship despite money laundering conviction
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11905478
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12011961
Chinese buyers fined $847k after failing to get consent to buy $5m cliff-top Auckland mansion
http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/departments/news/000564.html
Deaf NZ child — ‘a burden on the state’ — is murdered; father charged
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/84891031/Child-abuser-wins-right-to-stay-in-New-Zealand-for-humanitarian-reasons
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118004926/family-of-migrant-worker-who-died-on-the-job-seeks-compensation
Cigarette smuggling case: Defendants keep names secret to protect children, employees
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/115014183/cigarette-smuggling-case-defendants-keep-names-secret-to-protect-children-employees
Mother and son arrested for smuggling tobacco into NZ
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/117400678/mother-and-son-arrested-for-smuggling-tobacco-into-nz
Exclusive: Filipino shipping agent escaped jail time after 225k un-taxed cigarettes found in container she arranged
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/content/tvnz/onenews/story/2019/03/07/hold-filipino-shipping-agent-escapes-jail-time-after-225k-un-tax.html
Who is getting the welfare in NZ from the wage subsidies?
Coronavirus: Wealthy liquor store barons claim $550k Covid-19 wage subsidy
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121359471/coronavirus-wealthy-liqour-store-barons-claim-550k-covid19-wage-subsidy
Covid 19 coronavirus: NZ Couriers claim drivers’ wage subsidy
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12332334
K-Mart and Harvey Norman who are not NZ companies but leading the charge for NZ taxpayers corporate welfare.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/120861003/coronavirus-retail-giants-use-government-welfare-to-get-through-crisis
Silver Fern Farms which is 50% owned by Shanghai Maling Aquarius Ltd got $42,465,934.20 in wage subsidies.
NZ is a small country. It seems weird that unite union is so keen for NZ to support so many overseas nationals and corporations, while having no interest in the increasing poverty of NZ locals or how realistic it is in NZ to be paying for more and more of the world to get welfare handouts here!
Some foreign workers already are getting better conditions than Kiwis and foreign workers are being bought in with no job or just a part time one or cash job, while making Kiwi workers go part time with less guaranteed hours. It’s crazy. So are all those foreign skills working out cheaper and more experienced?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300005927/transmission-gully-project-a-circus-sections-to-be-relaid https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/409535/wellington-s-transmission-gully-project-blows-out-by-extra-191m
Not all unions think bringing in foreign workers over NZ workers to cut wages is a good idea.
http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=108809
Union speaks out against New Zealand visa surplus
https://www.visabureau.com/news/union-speaks-out-against-new-zealand-visa-surplus
Unite used to be against foreign workers being bought into NZ to lower wages aka Skycity style for Chefs, to a bizarre about face in the last few years, to giving migrant workers NZ residency with no work, to now unite union advocating paying migrants to do nothing in NZ and get on social welfare.. something is wrong with this picture of a union!
Why pay taxes at all, just work for cash like all our workers! Mike advocating for ACC payouts for cash construction workers… instead of jailing the employer and immigration advisor who employed this man???? https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118004926/family-of-migrant-worker-who-died-on-the-job-seeks-compensation
Nice comments SaveNZ
SADLY Jacinda only seems to want to look left wing when in reality she is TraitorKey (and the Chinese death cult capitalist NACT) light.
Her Govt just ignored the ‘perfect storm’ to do ‘the right thing’. Thus it begs the question, If not now then when. Occam’s razor suggests NEVER.
Where is a REAL left wing party in this country that can get into Parliament?
She’s never ever looked left wing!
Repeat. Five urgent steps:
“A doubling of the value of the unemployment benefit over the next six months at least.
Extending benefits to migrant workers who have been brought to New Zealand with the promise of work and education opportunities and now have lost their jobs.
The income people should be able to earn before benefits are cut should be radically increased to at least levels recommended by the Welfare Experts Advisory Group.
All benefit entitlements should be individualized so workers can access benefits even if the partner is working.
The $75 weekly in-work tax credit for a child should be extended to all families.”
Yes. Meaningful and effective initial demands.
This is not about the grace of the welfare state. It is about survival and social rights under conditions of an evolving tech/surveillance capitalism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mtKNOnSQJU
Frances Fox Piven: Welfare Rights and Social Movement Strategies.
There’s no doubt that the way money is managed today , in the interests of banks and financiers rather than the public, distorts distribution. But it is still inescapable that it’s function ultimately is to facilitate the exchange of what is produced in the community (however extended) and what needs to be consumed. If physical production is outstripped by the needs for consumption, be it food, housing, education ,healthcare etc. then creating extra money to try to give those who don’t have the opportunity to contribute to production, or don’t want to, the purchasing power to consume that which is not being produced cannot create the materials needed. It can only create inflation. The problem is complex. our economy and society is so complex that it is hard to identify where the imbalances occur. But the underlying reality still exists.
D J S
Powerful Post and Comments here! Thank you all for your continued vigilence and support for a new “Fair Deal” that desperately needs enactment right now! Not tomorrow, or after the election. Screw the election, you Status Quo Gatekeeper Neoliberalist Narrative Guardians don’t deserve an Election until you first fix what is so seriously broken and has been lying dead in the ditch for closing in on a Generation in time. Mike Treen, AFKTT, SaveNZ, Countryboy, thank you for your comments here! Your contributions are so welcome and well thought out! This is the first time I’ve felt the power of unity so strongly and it is sincerely heart warming! Kia Kaha! Excellent post!
The urgent move is to end the repayment of grant money out of future benefit payments – by moving to the tertiary debt repayment system where the debt is repaid when they gain employment.
The next urgent move is a government scheme to refinance the debt of those moving onto benefits (those losing jobs and or partners going onto the DPB or where the working parent loses their job). There is immediate hardship in ajustment to the lower level income, that debt refinance can mitigate.
The third move is support for the non working partner – for up to 12 months on losing employment. Perhaps via a living cost loan they repay on finding work.
The 4th move is UI for those under 25 for the next year (excluding those in FT work or study) as they will struggle to maintain normal income from part-time, casual and gig work. So they are not impacted by the abatement regime of the benefit (which underminds the way out).
The 5th is paying those with disability super rate benefit.
Then there is the migrant worker, the abatement regime for beneficiaries and the level of the main benefit ($25 is a start I suppose and the easier to afford home heating). Issues of precedent, cost and politics …
Greater awareness of the low level of the benefit, because of the increased numbers losing employment, is the ally of those who want change. Increasing the amount for the duration of middle class unemployment gets in the way of this – something Morrison understands.
You are aware of the open migration to Oz of Kiwis, where we have the visa for migrant workers and the terms of those. There is no benefit entitlement – for Kiwis this means income insurance, saving, or charity until they can return home. As yet there is no charity from the government for those Kiwis. Our government may have to look at organising flights home for migrant workers or recategorising their employmnent eligiblity to enable those with sufficient skills so as to to quickly find new jobs to do so.
Because GraCinda do not give a shit.
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