State tenants owe Kāinga Ora record $21m unpaid rent: one man owes $48,000
A state house tenant owing $48,000 in rent arrears remains in his house, having offered $150 a week to clear his debts.
The man from Upper Hutt tops Kāinga Ora’s list of debtors as the agency’s total rent arrears have risen more than 800 per cent lately to $21 million.
Nick Maling, Kāinga Ora national services general manager, said $21m the figure was the most it had ever been owed and indicated the difficulties people faced in meeting financial obligations in a tougher economic environment.
“This figure reflects the unprecedented challenges New Zealanders have faced in recent years and ongoing pressures on the cost of living.”
Stuff reported that state tenants owed $2.32m by September 2019, so the increase to $21m amounts to 813 per cent. Debts jumped to $17m by September 2022.
We punish State Tenants with this rule to charge them rent they can’t pay just as we punish beneficiaries with penalties and loans they can never pay back…
The $3.5 billion problem of debt to the Government that’s grinding down low-income earners
According to government figures, about 560,000 low-income earners, mostly beneficiaries, owe about $3.5 billion of combined debt to MSD, the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), and Inland Revenue (IR).
More than 70% of that burden rests on households where there are children, too. Māori and Pacific people are over-represented as well.
…the Egalitarian State has turned into a cruel money lender who punishes when we overpay and lock the poorest amongst us into debt with state agencies they can never pay back.
It is a debt trap designed to make the most vulnerable ended to the State until death.
This hard right racist Government has already stopped building State Houses to reintroduce desperation into the rental market alongside the right to kick tenants out plus tax loop holes for Landlords.
Having Chris Bishop as your landlord, a Politician who lied about renting his house from in-laws to pretend he understood renters, seems like a deal made in hell.
National have already promised to throw disruptive Kianga Ora tenants onto the streets while halting new State House builds which will see a leap in homelessness and increased waiting lists for fewer houses.
We are not interested in solutions to poverty and inequality, we only believe in making any welfare as difficult and toxic as possible so the poor give up turning to the State in the first place.
We have short changed our own people in terms of housing and safety nets so we can feel superior and smug in the tiny lounge rooms of our lonely bitterness on these shaky isles.
We would prefer harm to our fellow citizen just in case we don’t get something they might.
30 years of downward deunionised wage pressure has created a working people who are so poorly paid they look at welfare with envy.
Meanwhile the megalandlords and property speculators laugh all the way to the bank as homeownership continues to fall.
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How much of that debt is HNZ/MSD incompetence? I’ve seen them refuse to allow tenants to manage their own payments, automatically taking them from benefits/pensions instead – and then fucking them up.
just some troll when National were in power they milked Kainga Ora they sold flats, houses and land to foreigners, they gentrified huge parts of state housing areas leaving less housing stock for the poor. Now we all know National sell state houses and Labour build them. Having been a tenant for many years I’ve seen it all and heard mostly all of Nationals lies about our state housing. Soon Bishop who is readable will make the criteria of eligibility harder so as to reduce the waiting list. Then National will say they reduced the Kainga Ora list. Now with rapid immigration to please the businesses who will get to live in a state house.
If Luxon is a genuine Christian he will follow the following advice
“23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. 26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’ 27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.”
Probably no chance probably of that happening
It is not Luxon’s money to give away or for him to defend payment off .It is a pity all politicians remembered that .
Martyn – Rent Control is over due for private rentals.
850 empty state houses is another matter of concern.I realize there will always be need of maintenance but those near me seem to be empty for a long time. Why do couple have more children when they are not financial,able to look after them.
State clients are on the whole good people sonwhy do you think they do not deserve to have a peaceful neighborhood free from fear of unruly behavior. This is Green thinking that all people are good and they have the cheek to call National native
It’s a Bleak House situation where we wait for the PTB to sort out a reasonable settlement of the problem. But we know now after many decades that will never happen. We will go mad with our never- to-be-met Great Expectations. Charles Dickens arise, we need you, or should I say we are low and kneed help. Please.
” A state house tenant owing $48,000 in rent arrears remains in his house, having offered $150 a week to clear his debts ”
That level of rent arrears should never have been allowed to reach this level.
This deserves investigation and answers but I won’t hold my breath waiting to get them.
These are the public servants that some on this blog do not want to see fired
Trevor, judging by some of the posts on this blog, I think alot of them ARE public servants and are now terrified that the game is up, six figure salaries for turning up and eating their lunch.
Thousands need to be let go, they have been living high on the hogs back for 6 years, reality and common sense has just rode it town!
Replacing bad performance and removal of these roles altogether is not remotely the same thing.
I like the way people talk about “hand outs” and free loaders when talking about benefits. Doesn’t look like a handout
Oh well then lets chuck him out , Kaianga Ora are doomed if they do and doomed if they don’t, but hey don’t worry you will soon get a tax cut from the sale of state houses because there have been very nice ones built lately all mod-cons, all insulated etc.etc. Bill English will see they are sold to the highest bidder .From what I have seen lately of this so called government I really despair , from the post cabinet press conference, sending troops to a war no one will win until there is a cease fire in Palestine, Luxon not knowing about whether Palestine was a country in its own right with its own border, Peters not willing to answer questions ( and he’s the deputy clown ) Collins smirking eye rolls, David Seymour’s nonsense, Jone’s belligerence, Costello’s lies about cigarettes Reti’s reticence, Brown’s stopping everything to do with progress and climate change and all os a sudden all these previous smart arse Ministers so cocky in opposition need to take advice and where’s Wally Mitchell completely missing in action when there has been so much crime over summer not a peep. There I have AEREATED my frustrations with this cluster f**k. God help Aotearoa because this lot isn’t
It’s going well!
It’s exactly what I voted for, and I hope they stick to their policy and don’t let a few pissy maori put them off, onwards with the great policy!
It’s what NZ voted for, stop the maorification of New Zealand, get rid of about 10,000-15,000 useless govt workers and get NZ back on track.
Whoever wants to learn the maori language they are free to, it starts with maori themselves, why should the rest of NZ pay to keep a dying language, it’s maoris job to keep it on life support not the job of every non maori.