Poverty in Palmerston North; previous report

The problems people are having with WINZ:
getting their entitlements, and benefits that are not enough to survive on
 

This report is intended as a basis for the meeting over lunch with you on Tuesday, 13 April, and members of the Poverty Action Group

Further to the detail and stories concerning poverty in general in the city which were presented at our December meeting, a significant section of the Palmerston North community are dependent on WINZ for their income or income support. At the end of August last year, there were approximately 18,800 people receiving a benefit from NZISS.

There are two levels of difficulty that many people are experiencing, those inherent in the present system, and those that are influenced by specific situations. By far the bulk of problems are associated with the legislative constraints, culture and practices of the organisation.

This situation has been raised previously by Council officers and is currently gaining greater public attention.

It is considered that this is a very important area in which the advocacy role of the Mayor and Council could be of significant value both at the local regional and national levels.
 

While this fund is not open to use by individuals, Council staff have seen a marked increase in requests for assistance (Gray, 1998)

In the minutes of the meeting which considered Gray's report the following points are included which were made in discussion (Community Development and Health, 1998):

• The telephone system installed by Income Support to manage all its enquiries has proven to be ineffective and resulted in a negative situation where clients found access to appropriate services inordinately difficult to obtain.
• Income Support does have emergency grants and it was not appropriate for the City Council to provide a programme for such grants.
• While Community Development staff members had a direct line to Income Support, frequently the response by staff members of Income Support was inappropriate in consideration of emergencies placed before them.
   

It was because of similar issues affecting the Methodist Social Service Centre which operates the Palmerston North Foodbank which led to the establishment of the Palmerston North Advocacy Centre and the training of a large body of advocates in the city over the last 18 months.

The Advocacy Service has achieved an impressive record of successes for those it has represented including taking cases to appeal and to the Court. Such cases involve simply getting decisions reversed so that the claimants get their due, but also exposing harassment and officials acting on incorrect information that prior to investigation the claimant was not aware of but suspected.
 

• Significant numbers of people get turned away and do not even get to fill out an application form
• The people who are turned away by the receptionist "believe" or have the impression they have had their application turned down. In fact they haven't even applied in official terms and there will be no record of them doing so
• Consequently these people, turned away by receptionists, will not appear in statistics produced by WINZ in either the number of people who have applied, or in the number who have been turned away.
• Interestingly, the Palmerston North office says their random customer surveys conducted by an independent organisation gave them a high customer satisfaction rate. What WINZ does though is get the surveying group to contact people who have had recent contact with WINZ - that is, the people who actually get to fill in an application form! The people who are turned away by receptionists never get contacted.
   

• Although WINZ staff are required to see people who have an emergency that day, in practice this doesn't occur. People are having appointments made for them the next day, or often days later
• There is ongoing debate over what constitutes an emergency.
   

• People are being repeatedly told there is no such thing as a Special Benefit. This is blatantly untrue! But there seems to be a mind set at WINZ which is opposed to people receiving it. Many Advocate Benefit Reviews and longer term work at the Advocacy Centre is with people who are trying to establish a need for the Special Benefit. (This applies when the ongoing costs exceed the amount of the benefit, and frequently involve housing costs. Assistance is to get the legitimacy of the budget/costs accepted and the person on the benefit, to get it backdated to the time of the initial application and for it to be ongoing rather than arbitrarily chopped off after 3 - 4 months.)
• Special Needs Grants - non-recoverable. Lots of people who come to foodbanks are told they are ineligible for a special needs grant because they have a debt to the department. This is clearly wrong. A special needs grant from the non-recoverable programme does not have to be repaid. It does not add to the existing debt. Such logic should only apply to an advance
• People are advised to get a bank overdraft, try friends or family, or use a foodbank! If they are unsuccessful with those options (and can show proof they have tried) people can return to try again at WINZ
• There are significant inconsistencies between Customer Service Officers (CSO's) and between Palmerston North office and other offices.
• WINZ staff are required by national instruction to provide clients with a form letter outlining the reasons for being declined, or providing a breakdown of their benefit. This essentially never occurs. Beneficiaries often don't know what their benefit is comprised of
• Work testing has been particularly problematic for people with disabilities and has been applied to different groups in advance of the publicly published dates for this to begin.
   

• Complaints against CSOs are rarely made because people feel extremely vulnerable, Advocates are frequently asked by people "If you help me with this, the next time I go in on my own will I be penalised or hassled?" People are afraid to stand up for their rights.
• That is one of the downfalls of a customised service
• There is a huge reluctance by CSO's to assist with special needs grants and supplementary allowances
   

• There is a one week stand-down when people go from one benefit to another and from a work scheme such as Task Force Green, back to the benefit. This imposes major financial stress and acts as a major disincentive to taking up a work scheme.
   

In the rental housing sector, the range of affordable accommodation is shrinking. Since the inception of the Accommodation Supplement, landlords have asked the highest rents they dare, thereby pushing up the price of accommodation to a point which is oppressive for low income families.

In North American countries, affordable housing is assessed at around 30% of a person's gross income. In a recent New Zealand study, 41% of people receiving the Accommodation Supplement were spending over half of their income on accommodation. The reduction in rents for HNZ tenants last year resulted in a comparable reduction in their Accommodation Supplement which cancelled out any benefit they would have received from cheaper rent.

People on low incomes often have difficulty moving into adequate housing. Because landlords can charge up to four weeks bond and two weeks rent in advance, people may find they have to front up with $1000 or more just to pay the landlord when they move. On top of that they might need another $300 to have power, gas and phone connected.

During these processes, the 'customer' will be asked to show at least two forms of identification, from a selection of passport, driver's licence, credit card and birth certificate. To many low income people, a request for a credit card or passport is ludicrous, and many don't have a driver's licence. Even getting a birth certificate costs $21, and takes time to send for.

Last week, the Housing Advice Centre (HAC) faced, once again, the common example of a man looking for accommodation who couldn't get a benefit because he didn't have a permanent address, and couldn't get accommodation because he had no money. By the time he got to the Centre he was depressed and frustrated, and ready to give up the idea of getting either a place to live or a legitimate income.

Some statutory agencies appear to work on the premise that all people should fit in to 'normal' society by being in paid employment, living in a separate house and functioning within the parameters of a pakeha-oriented, ablest, heterosexist and individualistic culture.

It is no surprise that clients of WINZ feel depressed, angry, frustrated, neglected and of nuisance value only. The inability of Customer Service Officers to find flexibility in their decisions and variations in attitudes between staff mean that vulnerable clients have difficulty accepting the decisions made for them.

Apart from all this, WINZ staff not only withhold information from clients concerning their entitlements, at times they are simply wrong, and there is no way the client can find out their rights and entitlements unless they have knowledge of community advocacy agencies and the assertiveness to ask for help.

Housing NZ has a policy of having all of its properties available for sale. In practice this means that large houses and single units are diminishing as available options for low income tenants. The pool of housing available is not only shrinking, it is becoming a collection of sub-standard units in ghetto-like areas. Families trying to move into separate homes in areas they see as desirable are frustrated by the limited number of houses with enough bedrooms for their families or amenities like garages.

The sale of Housing NZ stock means that landlords have access to cheap houses which they can then rent out at market rents, which are very high in Palmerston North. Add to these the pool of old, sub-standard houses that students and families occupy and this leads to areas of crowded and grotty housing overflowing with people with health and economic problems.

Overcrowding is common in Palmerston North. The HAC often sees instances of two adults with one child in a two bedroom flat taking on three or more family members who have nowhere else to go. Commonly these boarders are young people who cannot get a benefit or a job, and stay wherever they can until something else turns up.

WINZ is known to be harsh in its policy on supporting young people with parents unable or unwilling to support them. Young people with parents on an adequate income are often refused any assistance, in spite of being completely estranged from their families. Community agencies are stretched to the limit of their meagre financial resources in dealing with these people, who are left with the option of dossing down with whoever will take them in, usually with undesirable consequences.

Actual homelessness certainly exists in our community. Apart from many like the example of the person with no address and no benefit, there are people who cannot cope with the limitations placed on them within emergency and institutional housing. The Homelessness Focus Group is investigating the need for a night shelter, but even this would only partly fill the need for warmth and safety faced by some people.
 

Most of the above problems appear to be associated with the culture of WINZ as an organisation and appear systemic and endemic to it as they are experienced country-wide and are not restricted to Palmerston North. The lack of complaints WINZ receives is largely because those who might complain are terrified that doing so may further jeopardise their financial situation.

Part of the problem stems from the downsizing of offices and the reduction in the numbers of staff but it is also driven by such performance criteria as dealing with clients in the shortest possible time, which is sometimes run as a staff competition.

The development of a sizeable underclass in the city presents a number of challenges. Assisting people to get their entitlements and the best out of hostile systems will become increasingly important.

Above all, will be that meeting the needs of this group be effectively advocated for both at the regional and national level.

Representatives of a number of voluntary welfare agencies are meeting with local WINZ staff, hopefully on an ongoing basis. However, their ability to effect system changes is likely to be rather limited.

It is here that the City Council and the Mayor have a very important role to play as one of the more effective advocates on behalf of a significant section of the community.

Cindy Johns, 1998. The Voluntary Sector in Palmerston North and the issues facing them and their clients. Unpublished report from BSW placement

Community Development and Health, 1998. Minutes of Committee meeting held on 4 February.

Susan Gray, 1998. Mayor's Relief Fund. Report for the Community Development and Health Committee, January, 1998.
 

Ian Ritchie
for the Poverty Action Group

www.wairaka.net/ubinz/IR/PovertyPN3.html