This Valentine’s Day, let’s remember the horror hate that WINZ & MSD scum enforce

As we celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, spare a thought for the beneficiaries who are denied relationships because of purposely cruel, obtuse and archaic WINZ and MSD policy.

WINZ and MSD have always used relationships as a means to claw back welfare payments and to effectively stop beneficiaries from falling in love because it results in a lower welfare payment.

WINZ and MSD claim it’s welfare fraud, that’s bullshit. it’s just another venomous tool for agencies with toxic cultures to wield fear and intrusion into beneficiaries lives so that they give up and stop claiming welfare.

This policy cruelty is backed up by mass surveillance powers and a vicious prosecutions culture that gleefully punishes beneficiaries for the crime of falling in love.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner has been damning of this hateful WINZ and MSD  policy…

MSD fraud investigations “intrusive, excessive and inconsistent with legal requirements” – Privacy Commissioner

An Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) inquiry has found the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) systematically misused its investigatory powers while pursuing benefit fraud, unjustifiably intruding on the privacy of many beneficiaries.

The inquiry found MSD’s exercise of its information gathering powers to be inconsistent with legal requirements under the Social Security Act 1964 and the Privacy Act 1993. This failure has resulted in infringements of individual privacy, particularly in relation to the collection of information from third parties.

In the course of its inquiry, OPC interviewed beneficiaries and reviewed fraud investigation files provided by MSD. As a result, it saw cases where individual privacy was infringed. Examples included:

• • Failing to ask beneficiary clients for information before seeking it from a third party leading to inaccurate assessments of the information;
  • Overly broad requests leading to the provision of unnecessary and sensitive information (in one case a woman’s birthing records);
  • Disproportionate and inappropriate requests for information (in some cases, every text message sent and received by an individual over lengthy periods);

Mr Edwards says the inquiry reviewed MSD files that contained text messages between parties in a relationship, sometimes of a sexual, familial or otherwise intimate nature.

“In one instance, a beneficiary described to us how MSD obtained, from a telecommunications company, an intimate picture shared by that individual with a sexual partner. The photograph was then produced at an interview by MSD investigators seeking an explanation for it.”

…so while you enjoy love this Valentine’s Day, remember there will be MSD & WINZ scum scrolling through beneficiary Facebook pages to catch them out with a photo that shows love.

What is the point of Jacinda’s kindness when this sort of Government sponsored hate policy  is allowed?

Happy Valentine’s Day.

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