Earlier in the week Deborah Coddington asked me for information about the invalid and sickness benefit, statistics or direction on where to get them. I sent the following;
For current numbers go to;
http://www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-work/publications-resources/statistics/benefit/2008-national-benefit-factsheets.html
Note those are 18-64 year-olds and there are people aged 16 and 17 also receiving sickness and invalid benefits. Last stats I had were 1,250 (combined total) at Oct 2007. They are not routinely published.
That has become the following in her weekly Herald column;
Longtime benefit reform campaigner and one-time Act candidate Lindsay Mitchell said the number of 18- to 64-year-olds on invalid benefits rose at a rate of about 6 per cent a year under the Labour Government, and that doesn't include the 16- and 17-year-olds, about 2000, also drawing this benefit.
I don't know where the first part of the quote comes from. It's not far off the mark though. Having just worked it out, the average yearly increase between 1999 and 2008 is 5.4 percent. But the second part is incorrect.
In 2007 there were 1,113 16-17 year-olds on a invalid's benefit and 137 on a sickness benefit. In a column about the invalidity of the invalid's benefit I wouldn't have mentioned the 1,113 16-17 year-olds simply because they are quite likely to be young people with intellectual disabilities and severe lifetime physical disabilities.
I am happy to help journalists. I don't care if I don't get credit as long as the correct information gets out there.
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6 comments:
Either way, Debs was a delight with her column this week.
You highlighted a serious issue and yes, the circumstances behind this beneficiery were most interesting.
Beneficiery bashing?
Look like it was the beneficiery doing the bashing!
It was a good column and I should have said so. So we have a journalist trying to give a pressing and growing problem some exposure while the Minister, who should be leading the discussion, is under siege.
Deborah made another error today:
http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/deborah-coddingtons-error-regarding-the-invalids-benefit/
Kiwipolemicist, I don't think it was an error and have explained why at your blog.
I loved Deborah Croddington's article, it's about time the mainstream media spoke up, but will anything change. will National do some of their own welfare reform? Somehow I doubt it, the gravy train just rolls onward, the taxpayers continue to be rorted.
Thank you for pointing out my error Lindsay. The post has been amended:
http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/deborah-coddington-on-the-invalids-benefit-a-critique/
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These posts may interest you:
http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/how-to-deal-with-child-abuse-part-1/
http://kiwipolemicist.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/how-to-deal-with-child-abuse-part-2/
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