RNZ reports on research from a Christchurch Beneficiary Advice group which looked at the effect of benefit sanctions, the consequence of not meeting obligations - those pesky things we wll have in our lives. Here's the quote that stopped me:
"We had clients talk about how they had to go and ask friends and family members for food for their children, which I think quite often causes embarrassment. They don't want to be seen to not be providing for their family," she said.
This amply illustrates that many people whose income arrives weekly from WINZ make no dinstinction between that source and earnings from work.
They don't want to be reliant on visible people but don't understand that they are reliant on invisible people.
Should there be some form of plain-English Work and Income pamphlet that explains how benefits are funded, how taxation from workers is spent on non-workers, and the incongruity of a beneficiary describing her or himself as a "provider"?
Yet again we see another example of the inversion of English. Words have lost their original meaning and with it comprehension of real life.
The people to blame for this are not those dependent. It's the people they deal with, who should know better.
4 comments:
Good on you Lindsay
It might be a bit much to expect these beneficiaries to understand the basic mechanics of Government taxation and redistribution, but it is worth attempting. I note also your earlier post about our Prime Minister adding to the number of children on welfare dependency, presumably in the name of kindness.
The one thing you can say for this government, it is consistent in its failure to understand the drivers of poverty, and to make any conscious move to remediate them. For those of us who have lived for a while, this remains the worst Government in living memory, and we have seen a few that have worked hard to qualify for that status.
I appreciate all you do in attempting to highlight the problems with our social policies.
Do you remember the old ad on TV where a long-term beneficary gets a job and tell the screen, "Now I'm working for my money". It became a joke, but it did try to dig into the idea that there is a sense of pride to be had for 'working for your money'. Pride and shame rely on some sort of value system and that went the way of that ad!
Sanctions. Those pesky things such as 'if you don;t go to work you don't get paid".
Sigh - so unreasonable.
I second Brendan. Thank you for all your effort fighting the good fight, and for your voice of reason, Lindsay.
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