When unemployment is 5.1 and predicted to rise, these new welfare sanctions are just political cruelty…
New ‘non-financial’ benefit sanctions begin today
New “non-financial” benefit sanctions starting today are about having “more tools available” than the current options, says the Minister for Social Development.
…the ‘Money Management’ punishment is called a ‘non-financial’ sanction, but that’s bullshit! It cuts welfare in half by 50% and forces it onto a card that people can’t use to pay rent or bills with.
It is designed to make being on welfare impossible, that’s the point.
The second sanction is ‘Community Work Experience’ which again is a set of hoops that if not completed leads to cuts in welfare.
The reason the Government are introducing these new sanctions is because the Regulatory Impact Statement for the legislation warned these new penalties “exacerbates the risk of a client facing hardship”, and that’s the point!
This is designed yo be so difficult people are forced off welfare.
Only 1.2% of beneficiaries are currently not complying with the existing job ready demands so this Government has created new ‘non-financial’ tactics to use to make people not comply!
Once someone is sanctioned with a ‘Money Management scheme’ or ‘Community Work Experience scheme’ they become ineligible for emergency housing or special needs grants so that they fall over on purpose!
MSD now want 6 monthly reviews but hilariously they cut workers so can’t manage a 6 month review – what was the Government’s solution? Why they will use AI to find a discrepancy to penalise you with and they will use AI to reject your claim so you are forced to find a real staff member to try and get it back.
They have doubled the length of time they can punish you for when trawling through your life and there is actually no clear path off the ‘Money Management scheme’ or ‘Community Work Experience scheme’ once you get punished with it.
This Government is so hell bent on screwing over the poor to find their tax cuts for the rich, they’ve even gone after sole parents whop rent a room out to a Boarder!
Labour accuses govt of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing bill under urgency
A post-Budget debate about changes to an accommodation supplement unusually dragged on into the early hours of Saturday morning, as opposition parties tried in vain to block the changes.
The House sat under urgency to debate a dozen bills, when a vote on the Social Assistance Legislation (Accommodation Supplement and Income-related Rent) Amendment Bill was called at about 11.30pm.
Usually, Parliament would not sit beyond midnight, but once a vote commences, it cannot stop without leave. That leave was sought by Labour MP Kieran McAnulty, but denied by government MPs.
Instead, opposition parties filed dozens of minor amendments, dragging out the proceedings. McAnulty accused the government of trying to avoid scrutiny by passing the bill under urgency.
“There’s no reason for this bill to go through under urgency, it’s got nothing to do with the Budget really,” he told RNZ. “They are going to try and save money from this bill to fill the gaps in their Budget.
“It should go to select committee and New Zealanders should have an opportunity to have their say.”
“We saw this with the Pay Equity Bill recently and now they’re doing it with this bill as well, and we oppose it. Many New Zealanders don’t know it’s happening, because it’s getting rushed through.”
Under the change, every boarder a person has will be taken into account, when their accommodation supplement is calculated by Work and Income. Currently, only those with three or more boarders have their supplement reduced.
McAnulty said more than 7000 people would be affected by the changes, which would reduce subsidies by roughly $100 a week.
How spiteful is this Government?
They are ramming through under urgency legislation originally set up to try and help Sole Parents with housing costs by allowing them 2 Boarders to help pay the rent.
These changes will force Sole Parents who have Boarders to now include their share of the rent in their own housing allowance calculations meaning those sole parents (or head tenants) who have 1 or 2 Boarders will lose $100 a week in their own housing allowance!
It is such a spiteful and brutal thing to do to Renters who have a Boarder to help cover costs, these people are not rolling in cash, they are just keeping their heads above water.
National are so desperate to take money from the poor to fund the rich, they are coming after sole parent renters who have a Boarder!
National take today what tomorrow never brings.
At some point, you as Kiwis, you as Egalitarians, you as the children of Universal Suffrage, Nucle free, the 40 hour working week, surely you will get off your knees for the corporations and the rich and stand against this obscenity of. government.
Surely you haven’t been so manipulated by your post-Covid bitterness that you are now slaves to the rich?
Who are you Kiwi?
Get off your knees in servitude to the rich.
Rise Kiwi.
Rise.
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I see entitled Louise” no public walkway near my property”Upston is leading by example in the government frugality stakes by sharing Simeon’s shovel.
Welfare is an entitlement. It’s there so I don’t get interrupted on my way to work. And the working class ain’t in NZ exactly because WINZ is a shit fail.
I see the underlying feature of today’s pollies and admins as ignorant puritans washed with self-righteousness and being smarmy about whatever culture their tiny minds have been able to fasten onto through narrow pathways – mainly money-oriented, the universal provider of all, flows through and bulkier demanding thoughts as raised in critical philosophy are piled outside in the rain like unwanted dead autumn leaves, or marred equipment or furnishings as excess for anyone to pick up and take away if of some use. ‘Be careful where you tread, you tread on my dreams.’
I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. This poem is in the public domain. William Butler Yeats, widely considered one of the greatest poets of the English language, received the 1923 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W. B. Yeats – Poems
Academy of American Poets https://poets.org › poem › aedh-wishes-cloths-heaven
Our culture could produce such thoughtful things in 1923, after WW1 but still we advanced to WW2, with an upsurge in warmaking, killing machinery and devices, nuclear, now we have progressed to more subtle ways of killing our sweet humanity, the sharpness of malicious gossip, the debauchment of our basic drives, the feasting of predatory money-hungry obsessed, addictions encouraged and denied at the same time, incipient madness, and deadening of curiosity and seeking meaning, obsequious and obscene warping of all noble values. What a bugger!
Most community organisations do vett checking many won’t pass the vett then whats you next plan im right alcatraz.
If those drawing superannuation are not subject to the same principles then this is a breach of the Human Rights Act, in particular equality under the law and specifically age discrimination. Any lawyers and law makers in Parliament who do not apply laws fairly and consistently are breaching both the Act and their responsibilities for care under the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act.
Because Maori have a life expectancy 7 years less than non Maori then they should receive superannuation at 58. This is one solution to get some off the jobseeker and into the super safe-zone created by these lawmakers. As well the benefit levels of super and jobseeker should be equivalent because anything else is discrimination. For anyone else on jobseeker, the government has a duty and obligation to transition them into work with as much care as they treat the boomer superannuitants (who, if we apply the reasoning of the MSD Ministry, may have exploited the system for their own benefit): fees free education, abundant high paid jobs, low cost healthcare, low cost housing and opportunities for growth and a good life.
Also cap the number of years someone can be a NZ Minister to say four terms, to mitigate the behaviours we are seeing with this tired old government: racist policies, dangerous and destructive threats, feathering the nest of family and friends, irrelevant legislation, house speculation as a lifestyle choice, fast track environmental degradation and bludging off the taxpayer for decades.
And finally any politician who has been complicit in genocide, through action or inaction, goes to jail.
Hikoi, to the house, ootoot out now.
the managerial classes are taking over. turn MSD into a website and replace the minister with an AI. What percentage of the MSD budget actually goes towards benefit payments?
‘Sam – Agreed…I have spoken to WINZ Case Managers, who claim that up to half of the clients are not keen to work due to “other” sources of income…’
Why are you questioning WINZ Case Managers?
How many of your confidants are representative of the organisation as a whole( which has about 8,000 staff and 200 locations)?
If these ‘Case Managers’ discuss personal details of their clients with you they are breaching privacy, which is illegal. If they do not have evidence for undeclared sources of income it is libelous.
In any case the whole tenor of your statement implies that beneficiaries do not have the same rights as the rest of us.
However if you keep hanging around WINZ offices they might give you a job( though I doubt that being a nosy prick is an actual qualification)
The last time I was at WINZ, some faceless case manager was doing her forced interrogation thing and bitching about my lack of current job references or networks. “Are you not from here?” was all she had. No support, no empathy about being driven into social isolation by the same system keeping her carcass on life support. Just some ugly insult to a Maori from up the road who has paid the wages for the likes of her for decades. If I am “not from here” and don’t deserve the respect of the state then migrants to this country have no rights at all. Zilch. Certainly this menopausal cunt doesn’t deserve any respect.
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