Friday, August 05, 2011

DPB cancellations due to incarceration more than double

Periodically I ask MSD for the reasons why people are leaving the DPB. Just tracking trends.

Not much stands out from today's response. Despite the new work-testing regime people are leaving for the reason 'obtained work' at no greater rate. Not when compared to the earlier 2000s.

But the following statistics are interesting enough to graph (the first years are to December; the last two are to June). Since 2002 the number of DPB cancellations due to incarceration has more than doubled.

There are increasingly more men on the DPB and more males than females go to prison from the DPB according to the 2003 Prison Census.

That's a hell of a lot of kids losing a caregiver to prison anyway and the provision of welfare wasn't enough to prevent these recipients resorting to crime, one of the major reasons advocates advance to justify it.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree that too many people use the DPB for too long.Most people on it it would not be criminals.Sometimes people need this help.You appear to be trying to give the impression that DPB recipients are a lower class an underclass.It is not productive or helpful to do this.I was once a wife and mother and for circumstances that could happen to a great many people I ended up having to use this help for a time.I had not family willing to help.I had a new born unwell child.I now have three sucessful adult offspring.Life was stressful for many years.You may be fortunate that you have not been in this situation.Your judgement and prejudice against people who need this help does not help.These people are not all criminals and their children are just plain old victims of circumstance.Give them all a break please.

Anonymous said...

Anonymouse

You are off-topic. You may not realise this, but could be construed as a form of trolling.

If you have been reading Lindsay's posts for any length of time, you will quickly realise she doesn't despise people on the DPB, or is prejudiced against them. She has worked with those less-fortunate and is willing to roll up her sleeves and get dirty.

Rather than "give them all a break", which the NZ taxpayer has been doing for far too long, I suggest you engage with her arguments - ie. the current system is not working, the various benefits are often abused, and no-one with the power to sort this mess out is willing to acknowledge this and sort it out.

Peace

Rufus

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Thanks Rufus.

Anonymous said...

Rufus, Lindsay and other members of your 'Mutual Admiration Society'.

So I am a Troll?
Thanks.
You can all just blog each other to death.

Anonymous said...

Is that a statistically significant sample to draw any relaible conclusion Lindsay?

I mean seriosly - 600 ish out of a DPB population of 100,000 plus??

Lindsay Mitchell said...

It's the increase that interests me. I am not drawing any conclusions beyond speculating whether it is due to an increase in the number of men on the DPB.

Anonymous said...

"...and the provision of welfare wasn't enough to prevent these recipients resorting to crime, one of the major reasons advocates advance to justify it.
"

isn't that a speculative conclusion that isn't validated by the data you just presented?

Lindsay Mitchell said...

It's an observation about those particular people.

Anonymous said...

No, AnonyMouse. 4:07

Wow, touchy aren't we?

I never said you were a Troll.

Just that you were off-topic, and that this could be construed as trolling.

Big difference there.

Since this is your first post here, (perhaps - who's to know when there are many "Anonymous" posters)) and I don't know your motivation, I won't claim you are trolling.

You're the one calling Lindsay, the author and owner of this blog, prejudiced.

Not very nice.

Especially since you have no idea who you're talking about.

So I respectfully suggest you behave a little more courteously, especially towards the blog author/owner, play the ball and not the player, and stay on topic.

Peace,

Rufus

Anonymous said...

I don't believe I was being discourteous.I know enough about Lindsay to say that her life experience is not the same as mine.I know there are legitimate reasons to need help at times.Many people who recieve the DPB are good law abiding citizens just like most people generally are.They need to keep positive about their futures.They dont need stereotyped predudice.They dont need to be made to feel like lepers.They need to be able to participate confidently in society daily.They would probaly prefer not to read generalizations that are negative in the paper (at the library) every week. This does not help.
I was a DPB recipient during the reign of Jenny Shipley.It was very unpleasant to listen to the negative stereotyping then as it is now.I was on this benefit for 3 years with 3 young children.I worked part time and studied fulltime and looked after 3 children including a unwell baby.I made the average happily married person with children look idle and indolent.Thanks partly to the DPB I am where I am now.A business owner with 3 sucessful grown children.Happily married also.
However you can all admire and stroke each other and live happily....?ever after.
Is this still called trolling???

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Anon, I am not about to stop pointing out the problems that welfare and the DPB has created to accommodate your sensitivities. So it may be best if you read blogs that are pro-welfare. The Green's Frogblog for example. I even link to it.