So noone wants to mention?

I'm pretty sure there are training incentives for those on the DPB meaning they get their study paid for anyway (which is something else that irks me as I have to take a student loan to pay for my study just cos i have a husband).

I studied last year and was only required to do 10-15 hours, I am doing 25 hours this year but could do anywhere between 8-25 was up to me, 25 means I get qualified quicker.

They were talking about compulsory seminars and training so those would be through winz not through other training authorities.
In the UK when my dad was on the dole after being made redundant he had to take along all rejection letters, letters showing interviews offered and he had to go to all interviews that the dole office set up for him. He couldn't get a job cos of his age and took a job working abroad, cos he didn't want to be on a benefit and then used that money to buy his own business.

It's just excuses as far as I'm concerned. You can get work or you could train if you wanted to and those that do want to already do, what the government is trying to do is force some motivation into the long term beneficiaries so that we get away from having whole generations of families who do nothing except take handouts.

I'm sure there will be teething problems with the new rules around benefits but what is the alternative, do nothing? Personally I would prefer they brought in work for your benefit schemes but apparently they cost too much.

I like the idea of food stamps etc. too to make sure the money is going to the right things.

I'm not so worried about the lack of jobs thing because you just have to prove you are looking. Though as someone else said it's probably not going to policed that well as it would take a lot of manpower.

The qualifications thing though is a problem. Because the gvt. is cutting funding to tertiary institutions - or rather not funding it based on per capita - universities are looking at cutting down on the amount of people they accept as they just can't accept all the people that want to attend and continue to run. Popular courses such as Business Mgmt are the ones that will be affected most. I would expect that this would affect any institution that is funded this way.

I'm very much a believer in welfare. I believe it is an important safety net and makes us function better as a whole society. I don't like people who abuse the system but I agree this 'good in theory' may not work in the real world. Also there are plenty of white collar system abusers out there too and the thing I hate about this whole debate is it makes it an 'us' and 'them' situation where 'them' are labelled bludgers and painted with a very broad brush.

If the children are affected then what will become of them in 15-20 years? That's when we as a society will really pay for the mistakes we make now.

The volunteer work sounds like a good option, their are loads of organisations that could use a hand.

TheKelly wrote: two_boys wrote: I'm pretty sure there are training incentives for those on the DPB meaning they get their study paid for anyway (which is something else that irks me as I have to take a student loan to pay for my study just cos i have a husband). there is , well, least when I was 18 there was (long time ago now ) a girl I knew was on the DPB and got the training incentive allowance, mind you as I said that was a while ago !

Not anymore there is,nt we have to do it just like everyone else winz will pay for level3 corses but not for any uni ploytechnic stuff

I believe that the DPB has its place and is need but people shouldnt be allowed to just use it. i think its the same with all benefits. i new someone that would get food grants from WINZ (they had 5 kids and neither parent worked) and they would buy wine with it

when i have a baby i would love to stay home until baby went to school but i just cant- DP works but it isnt going to be enough. the goverment needs to do something about people sitting on a benefit (if you have worked and found yourself in a bad place you have the right to go on a benefit until you sort things out) but im not sure if this the right way to go about it

Interesting reading this thread! Haven't kept up with the news so don't know a huge amount about the changes but agree that something needs to change with the benefit system. I also agree that studying or working 15 hours a week isn't alot especially if your kids are in school.
I think they need to do more to build peoples home skills - too many people don't know how to budget, cook cheap but nutritious food, grow a vege garden (I've found it suprisingly hard lol I don't have a green thumb!), etc. They should incorporate that into their requirements for benefit receivers and run compulsory courses covering all that stuff.

RachandJack wrote: I don't think it's unreasonable for beneficiaries to try to find work or study once their child is at school as long as they support them to find something suitable and they aren't punished for not being able to find something.

Totally agree with this statement.

RachandJack wrote: I do love how everybody knows someone who is on the DPB and do nothing all day when in reality 95% of people on the DPB stay on it for less than five years.

I actually don't know anyone on a benefit who does nothing all day. Everyone I know who has been/is on a benefit has been/is on it temporarily, feels very guilty about it and takes any job they can get. Am I in the minority?

I really have a hard time believing that people "pop out" (yeah right!) a baby every couple of years to stay on the benefit or get more money - surely there are very very few people that do that? I hear people tout that line so often though.....

I concieved my first while engaged and got married... only to have the rug pulled out from underneath me when he was 15 months old... without the DPB I would have been in serious trouble! I was only on it for 12 months (I'd had to go and live in a residential parenting programme, but thats a different kettle of fish) and the stigma attached to it was so awful that I took the first job I could find within a month of leaving, the only rental home I could find while on it was a cold damp dive of a home that had me taking him to the doctors almost weekly, and he ended up with asthma... but as soon as I mentioned I was a beneficiary, they would tell me all sorts of excuses why my application was denied (one R.E agent was honest and said a lot of places wont take on beneficiaries!) .. the job was a f/time cold calling fundraising job with minmum pay and I had to travel from S Auck to Newmarket and back 5x a week at rush hour... I ended up no better off working than I was on the benefit! In saying that though, they DO make it easy to get into paid work... they give you a lump sum payment to help cover bills and costs of working (clothing, petrol etc) until you get your first paycheck. I managed to find a much better paying job with reduced hours a few months later, and stayed with them (including an internal promotion to full-time when B was old enough to go to preschool for longer!) right up until I went on maternity leave. I have never been on the benefit prior or since then, and I will be damned if I am ever going to let myself need it again... but noone knows whats around the corner... my partner could fall over dead one day (god forbid!) and as I have JUST resigned from my job, I would have no choice but to go back on it... you can be sure that I will once again take any job I can to get away from the stereotypes that people seem to place on you the minute they discover you are on any form of the benefit!

For anyone still on the DPB, you only have to work 20+ hours to qualify for WFF (if you have a live-in partner, then it goes up to 30 hours between you), and there is a seperate payment from IRD where they top your income up to app $21K (that may have gone up as it was 3 years ago that I recieved this!) called Minimum Family Tax Credit, as well as the usual family tax credit and in work tax credit.

I'm another labour supporter... without the policies that they put in, I wouldnt be in the position I am now, and Jae probably wouldnt exist as we'd never have been able to afford to try for a baby! All going well, we plan for me to stay at home until Jae turns (or the next one if we can concieve before then) and is eligible for the 20 free hours... now that we are living together, we have almost nil entitlement to any WFF money, and preschool/after school care would take out the majority of my income, leaving me with about the same amount of $ as we get for me staying home and getting WFF from IRD and accom supplement from WINZ... makes it a no-brainer for me... I'd much rather stay home and enjoy the time with my baby since I can, than leave her with someone else all day and miss out on all the little things she does while I stress and scrape through the day then come home to kids who need me, dinner to cook, and a house to sort out, and be no better off financially!

I was raised on dpb & yes mum struggled. But she paid bills on time, didn't have hp, credit cards or overdrafts. Yes I know people who spend their dole on smokes & alcohol- their kids go without, bills stack up, debt collectors knock constantly but the parents don't give a sh*t. I like the idea of a benefit card- like an eftpos card but can't be used for alcohol or smokes, & you can't get cash out. If you miss bills, rent etc repeatedly it should be paid from dole before you even get it.

My two cents ...

Whilst it's true that some changes need to be made to the system, these are coming at the wrong time.

We're just coming out of a recession where we've seen the highest unemployment rates in 20 years. Yes, the rate has just dropped, but this is a seasonal change owing to the fact that the university/polytechnic school year begins in March. The fact is that there are still not a lot of jobs out there. The government should be creating jobs to encourage people into work, not threatening to cut benefits and force them into work.

Second, in other countries, employers are far more family-friendly and more ready to embrace flexible working than the vast majority of New Zealand employers are. The problem here then, is that there are a shortage of part-time jobs around. So when you tell someone they have to work for 15 hours a week, you're effectively saying they have to work full-time because those are the only jobs that are around. So a further change that needs to be made is to either require employers, or to encourage them, to adopt flexible working policies. (These could have other benefits too, such as decreasing traffic.)

Now, to those of you who are complaining about paying taxes to support solo mums on the DPB ... well, get over yourselves. I'm 31 years old and have been in constant employment since I graduated at 21; thus for the last ten years I have been a taxpayer myself. I'm now on the DPB as I have an eight-month-old daughter and her father decided he didn't want anything to do with us. In a welfare state, one of the reasons we pay taxes is so that we are able to receive help ourselves when we need it.

I do not wish to return to work yet as I don't want to leave my daughter in childcare for such long periods while she's so young, but I'm aware that if I did return to work, virtually all my salary would be spent on childcare so it's pointless returning. I know many two-parent families who find that financially, actually they're no better off with two parents working than they are with one.