Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Beyond silly

Apparently a sole parent is starving on $517 a week. It's that wicked benefit system again.

Hold on. That's equivalent to $13.79 an hour after tax working 37.5 hours a week. Would a worker who chooses to spend 57 percent of their income on rent and then struggles to make ends meet, make newspaper headlines?

It isn't the benefit level that is the problem. It is living beyond means. Get a flatmate.
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9 comments:

halod1 said...

Or live in Tokoroa.
The 50 inch flat screen looks the same from the couch.

11:09 PM
Anonymous said...

You have no idea how expensive rental property is in Auckland. No. Idea. You also have no idea how difficult it is to find rental property thats not so disgusting or rundown that living in it either damages your physical health or your mental health. On a benefit or not. Having recently known 2 people (one employed, one a beneficiary) who were given 42 days notice from their different rental propertys, and the nitemare it was to find a replacement home in the same area at the same budget, I thank my lucky stars I own my home.
I read 7 pages of diatribe in 'Your Spews' in the Herald towards this womans choices, most of which verged on the plain ridiculous. And sure get a flatmate, declare it to W&I who then readjust your accomodation supplement, so it makes no diff. And she makes news headlines because bene-bashing creates a shitstorm, and so people can throw stones at their glass houses.

4:43 PM
Anonymous said...

Anonymous - how about posting your real name.

So what do you propose to do about this situation - pay her more??!!!!

She gets this all for nothing.

There's a hell of a lot of hard-working people out there who take home less pay than this one does.

And they have to WORK for it. HARD.

And we're not even talking about all the other benefits/financial support she's entitled to that those workers aren't.

If she can't afford Auckland, move. Or share the accommodation costs with family/relatives/flatmates.

FFS this country is sooooo wrong.

Rufus

10:05 AM
Anonymous said...

I have the option to remain anon, this is my wish, I shall not be bullied into changing that position, thank you very much Rufus.

Move? What if her family live in Auckland? What is moving going to solve? Her child is in school, as a parent myself I understand how important it is to give my children stable roots, strong friendships and commitment to their schools. She should move and give that up to live cheap and potentially isolated? She should give up her degree?

She gets all this for nothing? Raising a future tax payer is nothing? How is raising a child alone not hard work? Because she doesn't pay tax to do it? A lonely thankless job, combined with the courageous choice to lift herself up and into meaningful work through tertiary study, how is this not hard? Why should she be relegated to often temporary low skilled work because she is a sole parent?

Is she not showing her 12 year old daughter a better way? There is no point in complaining about her choice to become a parent, no point in whinging that she had a child to a violent person. She was brave enough to leave and give her kid a violence free life. you would have preferred her to maintain that lifestyle?

This isn't about casting moral aspersions upon those whose lives don't work out that great. I have NO problem with helping these people.

hard work? hard work is the guys outside my house digging drains in the belting rain. Hard work is coming home and settling into 3 hours worth of homework after an 8 hour day at uni, cooking your kid a meal, helping them with their homework, doing the washing and throwing yourself into bed at midnight. With nooone to tell you your doing great but yourself.

Working in and of itself doesn't earn you the automatic badge 'Im doing it hard'.

I respectfully disagree with you on all points.

12:08 PM
Wealthy Single Male in his 50s said...

There is certainly plenty of jobs out there. May I suggest this solo mother that working as a call girl in K'Rd at night time is a well paid job. I frequently visit some parlors in K'Rd where some of the women who are working there are solo mothers. I pay them top $ for their services. A job is a job.

4:23 PM
Anonymous said...

she isn't the only parent to raise a child nor to acquire a tertiary qualification nor to live in some shitty rental property. The only thing you've done is give excuses to this woman and bitched and moaned about how "ridiculous" it is when your own writing is nothing short of diatribe and somehow trying to convince us that we should sympathize with her because its a lonely and thankless job. sorry but I see no reason to.

9:27 PM
Anonymous said...

Anon to Anon -

A diatribe against whom? I merely point out the complexities, and that nothing is simple. Shes not the only person no, but shes the person who the journo picked to write about, so whats the point in talking about all the people he didn't write about when thats actually the point, ALL the people he didn't write about.

I haven't forgetten my humanity, sympathy is part of my humanity, Im sorry you feel that way.

to the guy suggesting sex work.... I don't even know what to say.

12:07 PM
Anonymous said...

Anonymous #1

so what's your solution?

Pay her more?

I say she's getting a very very generous hand-out from the government. For nothing.

Complaining the way she does smacks of ingratitude.

If she can't support her current lifestyle, adjust.

Rufus

10:20 PM
Anonymous said...

this conversation is like being handcuffed to a merry go round opposite someone you don't like very much, everything goes in circles whilst also going nowhere, and the view is very very ordinary.

11:56 PM

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