Still not sure what they want, but I am pretty sure they don't want us to be a part of the solution.

This sort of continues on from my last entry (the thrilling tale of trying to get assistance from Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) to get us out of the unemployable and yet extremely capable hole we're in)... wherein I attempt to become part of the solution in the proposed *fixing* of the New Zealand Welfare system.

It begins with me emailing the Welfare Expert Advisory Group (WEAG) on October 23rd to offer my voice. I had been told about the Advisory Group by someone who had read my last blog - I had heard NOTHING about it prior to that.
 At around the same time, I Tweeted & Facebook'd a few things along the same lines, tagging the New Zealand Labour Party, the New Zealand Green Party and an assortment of MP's from both parties. I openly said I wasn't bothering to include other parties as I didn't feel like they would care. At all. I got no response to either the email to WEAG or to any of the posts (well no response from the people tagged into them, I got a fair few responses from people who have had similar experiences with WINZ.)

On Sunday the 4th of November I followed a link given to me on Facebook by a friend to a page the NZ Greens had put up for submissions to the WEAG, it auto-populates to the actual WEAG submission page I think. In this, I listed a number of things I felt need looking at, along with some suggestions for how they might be addressed. It was far from complete because I have put a lot of thought into what needs to be looked at in the welfare system over the years. This isn't the first time I have tried to make my voice heard.

On Monday the 5th of November, I decided that I felt like sufficient time had passed for me to be annoyed and composed an email to NZ Labour, NZ Greens, Prime Minister Ardern, Ministers Shaw, Sepuloni, Clark, Salesa, Henare & Genter and also WEAG. This one mentioned the lack of response and linked to a copy of my last blog entry, asked a few questions and again suggested that I am very willing to talk about the issues I see. I also mentioned that the submission process seems not the best way of communication if there is going to be no follow up from it - if you aren't talking to the person about what they wrote it's ridiculously easy to misinterpret the written word. I talked about my concerns that the WEAG was mainly populated with people who did not appear likely to have first-hand experience with the welfare support - I'm glad to note that apparently, they have one person on the board who is a current beneficiary, and another who has been on the benefit. However, I'm fairly sure that they missed a fair bit of my point there, since the people that have the biggest problems with WINZ tend to be the sort of people who are not likely to come forward and who have problems communicating full stop. They have apparently hosted forums in a number of places - I haven't found anyone yet who has actually attended one, but I'll keep trying. Again though, this system for communicating leaves out people who struggle with transport or who are not good at speaking in a crowd. It's also all pretty pointless if hardly anyone finds out about any of this until it's too late.

So I'm asking here, in the hopes that it gets spread around a bit - if you have been to a forum or made a submission I'd love to hear from you, even just briefly, so I can get an idea of how well used these systems were. At the same time, if you hadn't heard anything at all about the Welfare Expert Advisory Group I'd like to hear that too.

Anyway, back to the point. This second round of communication got a few responses. The office of James Shaw emailed to let me know that they had passed my email on to Jan Logie (Whom to date I have heard nothing from), the office of Carmel Sepuloni emailed to let me know that my email had been passed to the Minister (to date nothing from her either).
The Welfare Expert Advisory Group responded (this is a long story)... Firstly they called me, to briefly apologise for having missed my first email (it looks like they only got my second because one of the MP's forwarded it to them... there seems to be an issue with emails sent from Gmail accounts. Dubious.) They were busy with a forum right then so arranged to call me the following morning. Which they didn't. A few days later I got an email apologising for not calling when they had said they would and to set up a new time... which they also didn't manage. For better reason this time. They asked if they could call the next day - I told them my sister was in town and I would be spending the next 2 days with her but would be available from Friday onwards, to which the response was basically that it would need to be on Friday if any of our discussion was to be included in the submissions. So on Thursday evening after I'd finished with my family, I began taking notes from all the things people had said to me on social media so that I would be as ready as possible given that this was the last chance.

I contacted them in the morning to let them know that I had had a bad night with insomnia and was going to try to get a nap - they responded that they would wait until they heard back from me to call. At 1pm my phone rang, waking me up. I accidentally hit the big red button sending it straight to voicemail, but that's probably for the best as I was completely incoherent at that point. So I finished up my notes quickly, emailed them to let them know I was awake now (and included a copy of the notes) - this was probably less than 10 minutes after they called. 2 hours later, I was back to utterly exhausted so I emailed again to say not to call because I was virtually passing out and was going to try to go back to sleep. A few moments later an email came through saying they could call me right now if that was OK. I was annoyed enough and vague enough to think that replying would be a mistake.

Anyway, the TL/DR version of this is;
I don't think WEAG really grasp the concept of being chronically ill. Which is something of a shame since many of the problems that continue to plague the system are around the extra vulnerable.
I don't think our MP's are particularly interested in responding to mere mortals.
I don't think either the Government or WEAG are really particularly keen to hear what from anyone but themselves on the subject of the state of our Welfare System.

It would be nice to think that having asked for public input they might actually listen to it, but I've become jaded by a lack of this happening before so I will only believe it when I see it.

Peace. Out.

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. -.- 

Bad Mom Good Mom Same Same

Dear friends and usual readers... you probably don't want to read this one it's rather specific and kinda post-teen-wangsty.

My daughter and her best friend had a huge bust up. I was stuck in the middle of it because... well mostly because her bestie is virtually an extra kid of mine and her own parents are... probably fine but not brilliant at communicating. Plus the traditional issue of, all her biggest faults she has in common with her mother so they bounce off each other like bricks.

It's been a weird experience because I love them both and I don't want to see the relationship fall apart; I want to protect them both; and the trickiest part of all, as the rift between them grows how do I continue to make sure the Proto-Daughter is looked after without Daughter getting upset about the situation? (By relying on D being mature and understanding, that's how - I raised a very good one) For the last couple of weeks I've had some breathing room, because Daughter decided she couldn't look at Proto-Daughter's [let's call her PD from here on for ease... Daughter can be D] social media anymore without it making her either angry or sad so she unfollowed her and we were waiting to see what PD's reaction to that would be... and it was NOTHING.

Let's get the shortest version I can manage of the background out of the way.

PD had a boyfriend. Who is a massive raging sack full of syphilitic penises. This is not a reaction to my girl being hurt, he is objectively a horrible piece of crap. Their relationship was a disaster. They broke up and got back together, there was low-level violence & significant verbal abuse. And some other issues I shan't even bother getting into, that's quite enough. D was very concerned for her friends' safety and well-being and tried to communicate this to PD. But as we all know, people are not very good at hearing that their relationship is a steaming bucket full of diarrhoea while they are still on the inside. But it was increasingly hard for D to see her friend being hurt ALL THE TIME. And frustrating as hell seeing her break up, appear to *SEE THE LIGHT* then go right back to him as soon as he called. It reached a point were the best answer for D was to ask that the subject of the douchebag boyfriend be one that just wasn't brought up - the problem with that was that even with that caveat in place, the douchebag would still come up in really hard to ignore ways. He would text or call and PD would drop everything to answer him, she seemed frightened of not responding immediately. He would (in a way that looked manipulative to me) arrange to do things with PD at times he KNEW she already had things arranged with D. And again, PD seemed incapable of saying no to him. The more often it happened the more 2 things were happening at the other end. D was feeling rejected while at the same time she was also scared for her friend. And I mean really scared, as was I. I could see that the douchebag was a manipulative bastard and was already using verbal abuse techniques to control PD, he also has been known to lash out. So we were both scared of him hurting her physically as if emotionally wasn't enough. STUPID ASSHOLE.

Meanwhile D was having problems of her own. Health issues, and a boyfriend who seemed really lovely but turned out to be an asshole. The disappointing piece of shit. D's breakup left her raw, hurting from betrayal - I'm sure we can all relate to how much more it hurts when someone turns out to really really not be the person they appeared to be. I'd have punched him if the opportunity had arisen, and I don't really like to interfere in my daughter's social life - trying to fix this mess with PD is the big exception to the rule. It has been frustrating and terrible for us watching someone we both care about, keep going back to this asshole, knowing that he'll just hurt her again. Because he isn't capable of doing anything else, at least not with her. They just are not compatible. It's hard to accept that the person you think you're in love with is utterly unsuitable for you, so there was very little we could do to stop it - it's one of those things you need to be able to see for yourself before it will stick. So most of what we did was tell her she always had a place here if she needed it. No matter how sick of the situation we became that was always true. Even now, when D is about as hurt and as thoroughly wrapped in a cocoon of "I'm not letting you hurt me anymore" (getting to that) as she gets, she'd still take PD in in a heartbeat if she reached out in pain.

So the situation went like this... whenever PD was in a happy-ish place with the douchebag she would neglect her friendship with D. They'd make plans only to have PD *forget* or cancel, or try to reschedule into a time she knew wasn't good for D. (There is really only one time slot that totally doesn't work for D, the time she has lunch with her Dad.) Sometimes things would get *rescheduled* several times, before Kitty would just get angry with the BS and stop trying. The only times that PD would reliably turn up was when there had just been a break-up or when she wanted something. When a friendship becomes so obviously one-sided, no matter what the reasons are - it hurts. It hurts to feel like a person you love only wants to see you when they want something from you, that you're disposable the rest of the time. I watched D get more and more introverted the more her friendship became this. Not a friendship anymore at all, just a person using her and then discarding her when she wasn't useful anymore. It may not have been the intention (I don't believe it was) but it WAS and IS the result.
Friends fight sometimes. And in the pre-douchebag times, when they fought it was easily resolved. They would sort it out, they would both apologise. They would move on. But the longer the douchebag was around, the worse the situation became. Fights would not really be resolved they'd just be glossed over. So they festered. PD started taking everything said to her as a personal attack, which is hardly surprising because when your partner is an abusive manipulative bastard you get insecure. But it makes it really difficult to deal with any rifts. Neither of us could talk to PD about how the things she was doing (the breaking off plans, the lies, the douchebag...) were hurting D without PD getting defensive and assuming she was being attacked. I was often stepping in to speak for D because she was too upset to cope with it, or too ill. And I think maybe that made PD feel like she was being double-teamed when she wasn't.

Hell we all know I'm blunt, it's how I operate. I tell it like it is as much as possible to avoid the BS that comes about when you avoid saying it straight. That bluntness can be painful. But I did my level best to temper my bluntness with love. Because I do care, deeply for my Proto-Daughter. I don't want her to be hurt either. And I don't want her to be losing an important friend. But I can totally see D's point that she's taken enough pain already from this situation and that she's sick of her best friend putting no effort at all into fixing things. Or doing mind-meltingly stupid things while making a bare minimum effort to fix things. At the moment D is unsurprisingly struggling to see that PD sees any value at all in their friendship. So am I to be fair. I've given her the benefit of the doubt over and over again because I know the damage an abusive relationship can do to your ability to see things as they are and to communicate properly through troubled waters. But all of that is only a reason for things being bad, it isn't an excuse. When you can see that your behaviour is harmful you can't say sorry and then just keep on doing the harmful things. You aren't sorry until you work on stopping the harm. And you aren't a friend until you can put the other person at the front when their need is greater than yours.

As much as this may be a highly specific series of incidents, the basic idea is still multi-functional. Friendships are two-way streets, and no relationship that is all take and no give is a friendship. Or a thing that's worth having. Repair or discard. We got bored with waiting for reciprocation on the repair.

Maybe I should have just kept out of it all along. It would have disintegrated faster if nothing else. I caused it to be dragged out far longer than necessary by trying to repair it. If PD really was never going to try to fix things, then there wasn't much point in that. :/ My disappointment is betraying itself again. I love you both, and consequently, expect better from you both.

Peace. Out.

The most love.

As pretty much everyone knows, I was forced to put my darling cat Castiel to sleep recently. She gave me an enormous amount of love in her short life and I am finding things surprisingly difficult without her.

First person to say "she was just a cat" will earn the highest level of my wrath. Even if I'm pretty sure you're just trying to be funny.

I have had cats in my life since I was well pre-birth I guess. That may sound slightly mad to the less animal companion inclined people out there but I have the example of Ender ( my beloved silver Tabby) who was around for my pregnancy and through Kitty's early childhood. Ender used to curl up against my pregnant belly and purr. Kitty and Ender loved each other from the moment I brought Kitty home from the hospital. Ender looked after Kitty like a second Mother to her. I have story after story that I won't bore you with.

Cats have been a more reliable source of care to me than most humans. Even the bad-tempered cats in my life have been a greater source of consistency than almost any human. Chester was a bad-tempered piece of work but he was loyal as it is possible to be. And defended me physically on occasion. Lucy was named after the bitch in Charlie Brown, and she was as likely to growl as to purr. But she literally saved my life, and she slept on my bed more or less always. She'd get pissy if I disturbed her sleep, but she wouldn't leave.

I could talk about a dozen other cats, but it'll get tedious pretty quickly for people who didn't have personal experience of those animals. I've always wanted a dog too but never felt I was in a position to have one. I have a preference for cats, but I love pretty much all animals, except humans (present company probably excepted).

I've had a lot of cats that were pretty special animals. I've had all manner of different personalities from boisterous to timid, from love filled to grump monsters. The one thing they all had in common was loyalty. Earned loyalty. People talk about pets giving unconditional love, but I don't think that's true. Especially with cats. If you don't prove yourself worthy of your animal companions loyalty, you won't have it. Simple as that. Sometimes dogs are more willing to just love the shit out of their *master* no matter how much of a dick they are. Cats, not so much. Cats can look after themselves, they don't need to stay, they don't need to spend the majority of their time around you. They choose to. Cas spent so much time with us it was glorious. She was seldom far from my side, and if she was she was probably near Kitty. When I was at my illest she would be beside me offering me comfort. And I did the same for her in her illness.
I hated having to take the decision to take her on the long walk, but she was at best a couple of days from death (the tumour on her heart was either going to cause heart failure or she would slowly suffocate from being unable to oxygenate her blood sufficiently) it would have been a miserable death. So I held her on my lap while we let her take the shorter path.

Having been through all the shitty balls of cancer treatment (well most of the shitty balls, I managed to avoid some of the worst stuff) myself, I was not willing to put her through it, when the odds were well and thoroughly against her. Chemotherapy is horrible enough when it might actually cure you. When the best you can ask for is for it to prolong your life... well it begs the question, why are we so willing to show our beloved animal companions the door when we won't let our own kind CHOOSE the way out when it's the best available option? Of course, this wasn't the point of me writing this... it's just something that has annoyed me from both sides of the fence over the last couple of weeks. It's so easy for people to say "put her down" over an animal that I love pretty much as much as any person, but the same idea does not come easily to our lips over a human. And from the opposite side, people would have thought I was mad if I chose not to treat my own cancer. But most would have also thought it was batshit crazy to treat my cat with an almost identical protocol. Had her illness been something there were reasonable odds of curing (vs not making her utterly miserable) I wouldn't have hesitated. Had my odds been less good I would have said palliative care only. Cancer isn't something I take lightly. It's messed about with my life and the lives of people I love enough that I am well aware of the pros and cons of treatment.

Animal companions, in my opinion, are deserving of the same treatment in our lives as the humans in our lives. We are no less animal than any of our companion animals. And many of us are less human than our "pets". (I'm not a big fan of the term pet, these creatures are not belongings to me. They are friends. I choose to take them into my home and into my heart, but they never really belong to me. I love them, and I believe that they return that love. They can't tell me, but they show me every day.

Farewell Castiel, until we meet again - I hope that my Father has welcomed you into his garden with all the other cats of my past.