Kate Hawkesby: There is a disturbing entrenchment happening in regard to benefits

 

A landlord wrote to me the other day saying how many more tenants these days are applying for rentals, and on the application form are putting under proof of income, ‘WINZ’.

Her point was, since when was a WINZ benefit, which is supposed to be a short term solution for people in difficult circumstances, since when has that become an income?

Karl du Fresne: Navigating the Kafkaesque world of Work and Income

One of the crowning accomplishments of technology is that it has enabled the government bureaucracy to place itself out of reach of the people it’s supposed to serve.

I had a brief and slightly surreal taste of this a few days ago. I had lodged an online application for national superannuation, for which I will soon become eligible. All I now needed to do was attend the local Work and Income office and present my documentation – proof of identity, that sort of stuff. To do this I needed to make an appointment.

Mike Butler: WINZ and food bank queues

Work and Income Christmas-New Year rent payment policy may be partly blamed for queues at food banks and WINZ offices around the country in the second week of January every year. Many beneficiaries received two incomes on the week before Christmas, one payment in the week between Christmas and New Year, and nothing until the week beginning January 9.