What do they want?

This piece is about an appointment I had with my daughter at WINZ today, looking for assistance with our startup business. If you aren't into the idea of Social Welfare as a way to help people get back into the workforce then now is probably a good time to stop reading. Because for a change I don't really want a discussion - though I'll accept comments as I always do - I want to tell my story. Sections of conversation are not verbatim, my memory is complete bullshit so I'm remembering as much on the basis of how it felt to me as I am actual word-for-word prose. IE: heavily paraphrased.

I'll just get into it, so there's some chance that I don't get boiling mad again before the end.

First our background. My daughter and I both have medical issues. I have several diagnosed issues (actually being in the WINZ office set one-off, because they use fluorescent tube lights and I developed a migraine while we were talking) the sum of these conditions leaves me extremely unlikely to ever enter the workforce again - I mean realistically, would you hire someone who is likely to have to call in sick every other day, goes home ill often, loses concentration easily, has a memory like a... metal thing with holes in it, and has the potential to collapse/scream/vomit all over the office without warning? I may be the only person willing to hire me. And that's only because I know the job I'm asking of myself is something I can do when I'm not feeling like garbage. When I'm not on so many meds I pass out. That I can do 20 minutes work and then sit down for 20 minutes and recover while things wait for me. That I can work at 2am when insomnia has me in its grip and then lie down most of the morning because I haven't slept. I won't talk about my daughter's problems, they are her story to tell. To the meat of the story. 

On Wednesday I had a phone interview with WINZ (Work and Income New Zealand - ie: the unemployment office), that I booked a couple of weeks ago. I wanted a face-to-face appointment but the online booking service offered me a phone interview as the first available option. So I took it. I talked to a pleasant enough sounding employee about our business, and why we are trying to set ourselves up for ourselves. They asked me a few questions mainly around the concept of how I could be going into business when I'm on a medical dispensation. I explained the idea that a normal job is rather a different thing from working in your own home at your own pace. And that my doctor thinks this is a good idea and a great compromise for the issue of my ongoing medical problems. They said they weren't sure what help was available but they would speak to someone with greater expertise and booked an appointment for the following day. 

So I printed out our business details. Packed up our information. Made sure I had ID. And traipsed my shitty broken body down to the closest WINZ office, which is in fact very close thankfully. We waited for our appointment, eventually were led to a cubicle to be immediately told that they had talked to the person with greater knowledge who had said there was no help for us. I questioned this because the MSD website shows significant options for assistance in starting a business. Turns out the person I was talking to had assumed we were looking for just a cash-in-hand payment to buy things. (the phrase *assume makes an ass out of u and me* leapt irresistibly to mind. But I held it down. I know someone call Guinness.) I explained that while we are also looking for that, what we were interested in was the potential weekly payment to help while we have increased expenses, and training assistance so that my daughter can do a small business course and I can refresh my accountancy skills. Which are both things that according to their own website are offered by them.

WINZ Working for yourself page

Once again we were questioned about how we were able to start a business while on medical dispensation. Once again I explained the concept. The interviewer excused themselves to go and get us some forms to fill in... which it turned out were nothing to do with what we were there to talk about but rather were the self-assessment work ability forms. Now I smell a rat. Or fish. Whichever. Clearly, this has turned into "prove you aren't ripping us off" rather than "let's see if there might be some way we can help you".

So I had dragged myself out of the house - which isn't actually something I'm very excited to do since there is always the possibility that I'll just crumble... and set up the day so that since we were already out we could get some other *out* things done... Only to be told that there was no help for US. And it really did sound like specifically for US. Because clearly we were being ridiculous - either we're well enough to work and should get a fucking job or we should crawl back to bed and die. No grey area.

So here's my question to WINZ, to the Ministry of Social Development & to our Government: Do you actually want people to get off the benefit or are you just all talk? Because time after time regardless of which Party is in power, what I see is ridiculous decisions that seem aimed at maintaining the status quo, handing out band-aids and very little actual constructive HELP.

Pushing people to take jobs they aren't suited for isn't helping. Limiting the options for training to things they fancy training in is only helping if the training is any use to a client. Forcing clients to do courses that are utterly unnecessary to their background is wasteful. Hiring utterly unsuitable groups to do training courses that underperform is not merely wasteful but demoralising. A system that doesn't want to improve its client situation is just as useless in Social Welfare as it is in in the business world.   

Because I am a chronic illness patient, I know quite a few other chronic illness patients. Some of whom can work a bit, some who manage to work full time. Some who work more than they should. But more who cannot work at all. Many of whom would much rather have something, other than binge-watching TV and lying down a lot, to do. But while WINZ will help with your medication costs and seeing your doctor (maintaining the status quo) there is very little they will do to actually help you improve your situation. I've tried. Years ago my doctor suggested swimming as a low impact way to help increase my strength and potentially improve my endurance. So I asked for assistance with that. Nope. I asked for a bike back when I had the strength to use one so that I could bike to anywhere I needed to go as exercise rather than busing. Nope. They'd pay for a bus pass but not a bicycle, even at a medical professional's advice, because I MIGHT JUST SELL THE BIKE. Or presumably not even buy it in the first place but just use the money on booze, drugs, and prostitutes. Because that is the kind of attitude that beneficiaries face every day. Smug faces telling us that we can't have this or that, suggesting that we must be ripping the system off if we want to look at doing more for ourselves. Underhanded accusations of drug use. Or bad parenting. Or whatever other bullshit the person who's only known you for five minutes deems acceptable to imply. And there lies a piece of the problem. I haven't seen the same person twice in forever. Even when I have technically had a caseworker assigned to me, they turn over staff so often that unless you are seeing them all the time your chances of seeing the same person twice, is slim to non-existent. And I feel bad for the staff. They work shitty jobs, sometimes facing shitty people, enforcing shitty policy and it must wear you down. No matter what a justice-loving caring person you might be when you start it isn't hard to imagine you being worn down to *sorry can't help, next please*. And I don't think a love of justice or a caring nature is actually what they look for as primary attributes at hiring time. Add to that most of the staff never having been in trying times like this themselves so not having an idea of how to empathise with the situations of people who found themselves in the gutter and just want a hand out of it. Not a handout. A hand up. 

There is the undercurrent of belief, among people who have never had to wonder where their next meal is coming from, that people on the benefit are mostly just idle scroungers. You don't have to live on a benefit for very long to know that that literally cannot be true. Because it's HARD WORK living on insufficient to live on. Constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul. Putting off important even vital things so that there is still food on the table. A table to put food on. A roof over your table. Blankets on your bed. Clothes on your back. No one stays on the benefit because it's easier than having a job. People who are bilking the system, and they do exist, actually put work into doing it. Because if you don't then you aren't going to get enough to actually live a life worth living. And I think that's the thing that people who say things like *idle scroungers* forget. That there is a basic standard of living that everyone requires to not be miserable. Depression is rife among beneficiaries, I wonder if you can figure out why. 

I really hoped that the change in government in New Zealand was going to make a significant difference to the way beneficiaries are treated in this country. But the message seems to only very slowly be dribbling its way down to the people on the front lines. They are still behaving as if the Status Quo is *keep the money away from the people as much as possible* which is a stupid concept that isn't helping anybody. I hope that the Welfare Expert Advisory Group* will make some good and clear recommendations that are taken on board. I have asked to be involved if at all possible because I believe they need to hear the voices of some of the people directly affected by these decisions. I hope the government will take action on those recommendations and that this sick welfare system can be repaired. Once it was a bastion of world decency, now it is a shadow of its former self. I hope New Zealand can show that it isn't going to fall down the rabbit hole of uncaring that so many other countries are already scraping the bottom of.  

Peace. Out.

*You can find the Welfare Expert Advisory Group here

UPDATE: The Welfare Expert Advisory Group released a fairly excellent paper on what changes they felt were necessary. Almost none of which has been done. Or is likely to be done. Yay. -.-