Special Benefit

WINZ currently pays out $2.8 million a week in Special Benefit. SB is extra assistance for cases of genuine hardship. Today's DomPost reports on a case WINZ have just won through the Court of Appeal. A Christchurch beneficiary was denied an increase in her special benefit to cover a lawyers bill. She showed dogs and had taken the Kennel Club to court over some undisclosed matter. As she couldn't get the taxpayer to fund that, she took WINZ to court as well. Hope she lost both cases.

As of April 1 the Special Benefit will be abolished...only to be replaced by something called Temporary Additional Support. The reason being case managers can use their discretion when granting a Special Benefit. This is now deemed undesirable and should be replaced with a rules-based system. The TAS bill will be even higher.