Māngere mum faces crippling debt after flooding ruins her state house
A mother of four has been plunged further into debt after her government-provided home was ruined in the Auckland floods.
Jayde Jones’s Kāinga Ora home was built on a flood plain, and lifted off its foundations when a historic deluge swept across the city.
Jones believes the state housing agency should pay to replace her belongings; Kāinga Ora says that’s the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Development (MSD).
MSD coughed up just $500, and while Work and Income did provide another $6000, that’s money Jones will have to pay back – adding to her already sizeable Work and Income debts.
There is a deep cruelty built within our user plays welfare state.
When beneficiaries are in need beyond the meagre crumbs they are paid as a benefit, they can ‘borrow’ the money from MSD and are forced to have deductions to already meagre benefits to pay it back!
This is nothing more than debt slavery. MSD use their opaque rules to catch people out via ‘relationships’ and have access to mass surveillance tools to hunt these supposed enemies of the state.
Making the poor borrow money for a flood through a State House is a special kind of malice isn’t it?
What makes it so much ore offensive is that it is being done under a Labour Government.
Carmel Sepuloni, who has been an appalling failure as Minister to people in need, should be forced to explain why debt slavery to a cruel welfare ministry with an appalling track record of abusing vulnerable people, is a successful social policy from a Labour Government.
Every Kiwi should feel ashamed that we are driving State House Tenants into debt to buy the basics because of flooding they had no hand in generating.
How have we become this cruel and spiteful to one another in need?
Where is our basic humanity?
We need urgent solutions to the billions in debt that many have with the State, be it student loan, fines, tax debt, benefit ‘fraud’.
We are facing a Black Swan economic event, forgiving debt could be an easy means to alleviate immediate relief.
The problem is that MSD and WINZ see that debt as an asset and use it that way on their balance sheets.
They see enslaving the poor into debt as a means of total spectrum dominance on the under class to ensure total subservience to the State.
Fuck that.
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The MSD is not enslaving anyone as there is no expectation of getting any work out of the beneficiaries. However, if you are an overseas worker with a large debt (to cover your visa “administration” fees), and that visa is tied to your job that pays less than minimum wage with non of the legislated benefits, then you have been truly enslaved by your debt. Ditto if you’re a mortgage holder.
Establishing debt at all on beneficiaries really just shows benefit rates are too low, and abatement rates too high, and how other areas of state policy have failed or been monetised for the benefit of the private sector.
Taxpayer funded dental and medical care, fare free public transport, large scale state house build and GST off food would go a long way to removing the need for debt in the first instance. That and a basic income for all citizens.
The problem is most MPs have not a clue how the other half lives–the 50% that own just 2% of the wealth that is! Carmel Sepuloni and other officials must have an inkling of exactly the punishment maze that MSD/WINZ operate–which is why they created a higher rate second tier COVID benefit that middle class people could access without have to battle combative case managers, and while their partner was still working! The latter is a no no for normal dirty filthy bennies.
Monetarism views nearly every element of life as a transaction that can be expressed on a spreadsheet. “Live your best life?” well the top State Sector bludgers certainly do–but not you dole bludgers! don’t get aspirations above your official loser status…
Work it out! Building on flood plains and not building for vastly worse climate conditions is a crime to society!
Under woke virtue signalling and globalist capitalism, the developer and consultants get their profits, but the person that lives in the house will not only face huge problems when it floods, but also become poorer as they lose their uninsured belongings.
Meanwhile the taxpayers will have to pay to rebuild the house they just paid for – less money for health care and other big ticket taxes.
Many houses being built in NZ are compromised by poor rules around consenting and poor building practises. Thus more and more people lose everything and are on the welfare system when disasters strike. It also then puts a strain on those in state housing and those without – some get everything paid for, some are expected to have private insurance and so forth.
The governments management control mentality kicks in, creating more committees and centralised power that tend to be even more useless, slowing everything down further, while costing a bomb, that doesn’t get to the source, which is helping the victims of the disaster quickly.
Added to this, NZ wages not allowed to rise for inflation in real terms, while everything else, (food, power, building materials, services, insurance costs, transport). This then means people are often just as well off on a benefit than working in NZ.
In spite of those that think the tax system does not tax the rich. They found it did. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/488161/rich-paying-their-fair-share-of-tax-study-concludes The problem seems to be the way that wages vs goods vs welfare has created a system in NZ, that seems to discourage workers. Even the unions seem to have abandoned the workers in NZ and concentrated on migrants right and benefits.
NZ Workers don’t get paid much, often have stressful jobs and don’t get the benefits that others who do not work get. Then in woke NZ, they are told they are too rich and should pay more tax. This has created a system where workers have tiny wage increases, their costs going up and their taxes going up, but they are told they are the problem in woke NZ. Thus they leave NZ to work else where.
Meanwhile it is also discouraging for employers, as there is so many extremes in how NZ wokeforce is handled – people who don’t work or are terrible get compensation, and there is a blind eye to the growing trade of worker exploitation which competes with companies that are not exploiting (and puts them out of business), where more and more companies use workers and their work that is either cash or below minimum wages (aka Chorus subcontractors, cash worker restaurants). The quality of work as well as the quality of workers, is also going down, the more the huge discrepancies keep growing.
In this case in health a 12 person committee set up to help medical staff gaps have done nothing but expanded and set up six professional working groups and 20 profession steering groups.
The people running them are described as
“The taskforce, as far as I could see, hand-selected a few individuals – not necessarily with any workforce experience and certainly not representative of the workforce – and went about its business, and, as far as we are aware, has produced very little.”
Taskforce to address health staff gaps failing to deliver, doctors say
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/488219/taskforce-to-address-health-staff-gaps-failing-to-deliver-doctors-say
The Labour government needs to increase the abatement levels particularly with the recent inflation rates.
Too many people are struggling unnecessary, and we must remember for inflation to drop we need higher unemployment, so people need to stop putting the boot into beneficiaries. And there is no point increasing benefit rates only to take it away by reducing other entitlement like the accommodation supplement this is counterintuitive.
https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/sepuloni-carmel/
The Hon Carmel Sepuloni –
Current responsibilities:
Arts, Culture and Heritage
Minister 06/11/2020
Social Development and Employment
Minister 06/11/2020
Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region)
Associate Minister 01/02/2023
Deputy Prime Minister 25/01/2023
Date first elected: 08 November 2008
Member of the following Parliaments: 49th, 51st, 52nd and 53rd
Carmel has always been committed to improving social, health and educational outcomes for all New Zealanders but has especially focused during her career on low socio-economic groups, Māori, Pacific, disabled people and sole parents. During her political career Carmel has expanded access to the training incentive allowance, made public the impact of cuts to ACC funding for survivors of sexual violence, campaigned for better legislation around social workers and fought for the right to privacy for social service users.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/biography/carmel-sepuloni
Looking at the wide range of her responsibilities and how she must be divided in her loyalties towards those pertaining to the Pacific Islands, I think that Ms Sepuloni is over-stretched. Being Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs (Pacific Region) should be the limit. Why Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage also?
I think definitely that Minister for Social Development and Employment is a load that needs one person’s full attention. That it is added to other portfolios indicates that the Labour Party has not enough able players in this field, or they are discriminating against white people who have experience and drive and a vision of a united country.
With reference to this – the impact of cuts to ACC funding for survivors of sexual violence, – it should be known that if some payment is made by ACC to assist with problems that arise, the payment is required to be spent immediately or the benefit or grants are dropped. The person is not allowed to retain savings against hard times or difficulties. This ensures that the person continues to feel at heart vulnerable and needy. It seems that is the outcome that all political parties wish for most NZs.
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