The madness of Tolley’s neoliberal welfare cuts
This has got to be the most disingenuous press release ever released in NZ…
Social Development Minister Anne Tolley says the number of people receiving a benefit is continuing to decline year on year, with sole parents driving the biggest reduction in numbers.
“The number of people receiving a main benefit has fallen by 4,339 or 1.4 per cent in the last 12 months. This puts the proportion of the population (10.3 per cent) receiving a main benefit at the lowest it’s been in a December quarter since before the Global Financial Crisis,” says Mrs Tolley.
“Sole parents continue to show a willingness to move into independence, with 3,410 (5 per cent) fewer people now receiving Sole Parent Support compared to the same time last year.
“All regions saw a fall in this benefit type compared to December 2015, with the strongest reductions in Bay of Plenty and Auckland, down 9 per cent and 6.4 per cent respectively.
“By investing in intensive support and training as well providing ongoing help with study and childcare, we’ve made it easier for sole parents to find and stay in work.
“We know that children who grow up in benefit dependent homes are less likely to achieve NCEA Level 2, more likely to be notified to Child, Youth and Family, and more likely to end up on a benefit themselves.
“Supporting parents into employment or study not only increases their incomes, but also sets a strong example for their children and helps break the cycle of intergenerational welfare dependence.
“It’s great to see more families now living independently – we know that it’s good for parents and much better for their children.”
…folks, here’s the problem with these types of farcical statements. Tolley is telling us that this drop in benefit numbers is somehow a good thing. What she isn’t telling you is how Tolley and these neoliberal welfare stormtroopers have gone about getting that reduction.
The MoD are well know for their draconian take on welfare. They find every excuse under the sun to disqualify a person from welfare.
Miss a phone call from any neoliberal welfare agency? Have your welfare cut.
Refuse a job even if it’s unsuitable? Have your welfare cut.
Look like you are in a relationship on your social media account? Have your welfare cut.
The draconian measures adopted by the neoliberal welfare state under National find any excuse possible to disqualify the needy from welfare. Tolley has no idea at all where any of these beneficiaries have gone.
These numbers are nothing to celebrate, they have come about not because of retraining or better jobs, they have come about because the neoliberal welfare state does everything possible to cut peoples welfare.
Look at the other end of this,
Emergency food grants rocketing under National
More and more Kiwis are going hungry under National with hardship grants for food jumping 14 per cent in the last year alone, says Labour Leader Andrew Little.
“That’s a damning indictment of how Bill English’s government has let things get worse for those most vulnerable in our society.
“Hardship Assistance Grants for food are given to Kiwis on the very lowest incomes who have no money left after paying for the basics like rent. They soared by nearly 14,000 in the year to last December to 112,000.
“In the past four years, Work and Income has dished out an additional $2.8 million in grants.
…this explosion in food grants is occurring because National and Tolley have simply kicked people off welfare rather than find them appropriate work for their skill set or upskill them for better employment.
It’s madness and it’s doing nothing to help with poverty or inequality.
The only reason National get away with these empty press statements is because the mainstream media don’t challenge them on it.
Exactly Martyn – nothing to celebrate when statistics are mis-used to prove a point not worth proving. With Tolley and Bennett at the helm, again, watch out those in need as you will be labeled; judged and not served to become independent at all. Their stats are more important than the quality of lives and the happiness and independence of people in the fringes.
They brag that they are succeeding due to lower beneficiaries rates but this is an illusion, a mirage of a deeper problem. They have failed over and over and no statistic can prove anything if people are continually in need and not getting the support and help they should be receiving.
Tolley and Bennett are so out of touch with those in need that they are the last people I would want to go to if I needed help. Can not be trusted.
Elitist women who’s stats are more important to them than people are.
“The only reason National get away with these empty press statements is because the mainstream media don’t challenge them on it.”
I WONDER HOW MUCH OF A BACKHANDER THIS USELESS MSM GETS PAID TO SIT QUIET AND DOES NOTHING?
What about the dodgy methods they use to pressure sick and disabled off benefits? They always talk about “supports”, but there are virtually none of significance to be found:
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/senior-scientist-and-legal-experts-discredit-evidence-used-by-msd-and-dr-bratt-when-claiming-the-health-benefits-of-work/
‚In the expectation of recovery’, Faulkner, Centre for Welfare Reform, Scrib
https://www.scribd.com/doc/308613502/In-the-Expectation-of-Recovery
(criticism of biopsychosocial model, Aylward et al)
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/designated-doctors-used-by-work-and-income-some-also-used-by-acc-the-truth-about-them/
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/designated-doctors-used-by-winz-msd-the-truth-about-them-post-upd-18-10-2016.pdf
http://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2014/10/05/work-has-fewer-health-benefits-than-mansel-aylward-and-other-experts-claim-it-can-cause-serious-harm/
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/msd-and-dr-david-bratt-present-misleading-evidence-claiming-worklessness-causes-poor-health/
https://nzsocialjusticeblog2013.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/msd-dr-bratt-present-misleading-evidence-on-worklessness-and-health-publ-post-19-09-16.pdf
“Evidence” they have, they claim, that work makes you healthier, tell that an overworked checkout operator at the supermarket, a persons working 12 hour shifts in warehouses or factories, one of the many underpaid, casual, part time and low skilled workers in many industries, barely earning enough to pay the “market rent”.
It is a damned disgrace that this crap MSM media we have, never bothers to report on this stuff, as they only have the “hard working” middle class on their minds, who they sell their programs laced with endless commercial advertising to.
Thank you Mike. I often read your comments on this but don’t reply.
The continued and I believe unnecessary attacks on those who are seriously impaired have to stop before welfare can be properly overhauled.
I am particularly concerned about those with specific housing needs due to disability which continue to go unmet. How anyone can justify punishing these people further is incomprehensible to me.
I eagerly wait a similar press release telling us all how there’s been a proportional rise in homelessness, crime, and suicide due to these welfare-related “successes”.
how they treat the mentally ill is appalling but generally how they treat people is bad that is why we need to vote the bastards out
Bennett is a solo mother in name only .
Who looked after her baby while she was at University.
She never mentions that her family are well heeled and have a shop;
Most of the solo-mothers I have known have struggled to survive and could not manage to study full time . yet this ‘poor solo mum ‘managed to attend full time study . I wonder how managed to pay the baby sitter.
The worrying thing is that when English is away this awful woman is acting PM.
Bennett has never told how she managed to attend University with a baby at home .Never ever been told who looked after the baby.
Never mentions that her family had a shop and were able to help her financially. She was a solo mum in name only .Most of he solo mums I have meet and see have had a struggle to manage .
That this awful woman is the PM when English is away is shocking .
Neoliberals Know The Price Of Everything And The Value Of Nothing
My father likes to say that some people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The same could be said of the neoliberals of the world, who–in case you missed my previous piece–are now transcendent in most policy circles across the world.
To review, the neoliberal agenda is one of deregulation, unfettered trade, fiscal austerity (with the attendant reduction in social programs), privatization and tax reduction. Fundamental to the neoliberal ideology is that government regulation and planning of economic activity are inherently flawed and cannot bring about the desired ends of efficiency, prosperity and social harmony.
Instead, price is the great and sufficient transmitter of information across the economy and across society at large. Price is the best barometer for all decisions. Hence, the emphasis on privatizing almost everything in society including education and health care.
Neoliberals believe that voting with your money is at least, if not more important, than voting in elections in a free society. The freer the market, the more choices consumers will have, and the more competitive the market, the better the quality will be.
There are several problems, of course, with the price mechanism. First, it only takes into account costs which are directly borne by the provider of a product or service. So-called externalities such as pollution and climate change are not tallied in the price. In order for those costs to be included, say, by the imposition of a carbon tax, the government would have to intervene, something not consistent with neoliberal ideas.
Second, such a monomaniacal focus on price alone pre-empts a broader view of social goals, reducing them merely to price signals. But not every social good can be reduced to a price signal in a nominally “free” market…… http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/01/16/neoliberals-know-the-price-of-everything-and-the-value-of-nothing/#comment-3551
They know the price of their stupid grins and overpriced rags but not that they are valueless clones! 🙁
In a post-Orwellian society, a government can use figures to paint whatever positive picture they want to. Stats become ‘weaponised’, data is corrupted or used selectively or not counted at all. Lying is policy.
Something from Stats NZ recently made me discount anything those National-toadies give us; https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2016/08/15/national-exploits-fudged-statistics-nz-unemployment-figures/ (thank god for bookmarking, is all I can say!!)