John Key Proved Right
John Key was castigated in the left wing blogosphere for suggesting that the increase in people needing food parcels was due to issues of budgeting. It seems he was right. Not that the Herald would actually use the MacDoctor’s headline – they prefer:
Mum refused food aid under tough new rules
And then they launch into a long story about a solo mum with fibromyalgia and three children (7, 13 and 17) who has had to escape an abusive relationship. So far so good – that is what the DPB was intended for (although I would have thought she would have been on the sickness benefit, rather than the DPB). The story gets lurid with the nasty National government refusing to provide this poor lady with food aid.
Only in paragraph ten do we learn that this woman is receiving $827.50 a week in various forms of government largesse. It is not until the end of the article that we learn that she has had four aid packages in the past six months and that she refuses to attend any budget meetings with WINZ.
The MacDoctor is fully aware that it is tough down at the lower end of the earning scale, but this woman is receiving the after tax equivalent of $56,000 per annum - well over the average wage! I personally know of at least two families (one of 4 and one of 5) who are managing on $10,000 less than this and are never short of food.
One is forced to conclude that this lady does indeed have a budgeting problem. Even a cursory glance at her budget shows that she is paying a lot of rent and using as much electricity as the MacDoctor household! One wonders if she truly needs a car (and one notes she does not budget for car maintenance – a flare-lit tip off that she can’t really afford a car).
It has been a very long time since I had to budget with a very small income, so I will not presume to give budgeting advice. However, it is clear to me that this lady needs help more in the form of the hard word on her budget rather than food aid. In the medium to long term at least.
She really can’t expect the taxpayer to keep bailing her out. I might be able to afford it, but my friends on their limited budgets can not. New Zealand as a country can no longer afford people who stand with their hands out the whole time and never take any responsibility for themselves.
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Apr 7 11 9:51 pm
I’ve seen enough of these sob stories now with the real details at the bottom to suggest the reporters are satisfying both ends of the political spectrum. The sob story is at the top, and the details proving its a con are at the bottom.
Still.. it would be nice to see the two positions reversed occasionally
JC
Apr 9 11 12:40 pm
The rules aren’t that tough at all – all you have to do is get budget advice. Last I checked, listening to someone talk was not exactly hard! Yet according to the article she’s refused. That makes her the author of her own problems.
I have it on good authority that WINZ are cancelling large numbers of benefits because those on them are simply not bothering to fulfil basic commitments – commitments that pale in comparison to any employee’s. Many aren’t even answering their phone when WINZ calls, so their chances of receiving a call from an employer are a big, fat zero.
scrubone´s last [type] ..Ran out of chalk…
Apr 12 11 8:45 am
Glad to hear that WINZ appears to be taking some action, but it’s still not fast enough. I still see evidence of people who have been on benefits for years and apparently are never asked to do anything. I was unfortunate enough to be on the dole for about 6 months many years ago, and was constantly required to provide evidence of jobs I had applied for, attend courses, and so on. There was real incentive to get a job, and that is how it should be.
Apr 11 11 11:25 am
Still waiting on some reply to your rant on Cunliffe.
But anyway, what you and just everybody else miss when talking about having the hand out, and ummm, responsibilities, is the other half that contributed to this situation.
The cost to the taxpayer? IF the arsehole who smacked her up is contributing child support payments like he is meant to then the cost to the taxpayer is a lot less than portayed.
If you wish to talk about responsibility, perhaps apply the blow-torch just as hard to men who shirk both their moral and financial responsibilities in such situations.
Apr 18 11 7:33 pm
Been a bit quiet around here, here’s something o/t I found interesting:
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Truths-You-Cannot-Utter
Apr 18 11 10:51 pm
This is true to form in so many areas of science. Science is about facts….as long as those facts don’t annoy people or go against mainstream thinking. A lot of this goes on in the global warming debate. But then, I guess this attitude is true across much of society. Our justice system is supposedly open, but name supression is rife, supposedly for the public good, whatever that is. Then in Auckland we have a mayor who campaigned on a platform of open and transparent government, and who is now transacting much of council’s business behind closed doors. Truth is important, as long as it’s convenient.