Press release:  embargoed to Noon, Saturday, 16 November

Graham Howell, spokesperson for the Benefit Rights Service expresses concern at the threat of cars being confiscated from poor people because of unpaid traffic fines.

Many of these fines are due to driving unregistered cars when the beneficiary has been told that Work and Income won’t help because the beneficiary should have saved for the cost in question.

Requests for an advances of benefit for car registration or replacing broken white-ware are continually met with the mantra like response: “the cost is not unexpected; you should have saved for it”.

Beneficiaries are not in the position to save.   Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders on medium incomes have problems saving so to expect someone on a benefit to do so is an insult to their intelligence.

Applications can be for essential white ware such as fridges when the second-hand fridge has broken down or for car warrants or registration. Cars are essential especially in rural areas or towns where public transport is not available or impracticable.   The Police or traffic control folk certainly should not confiscate cars.  The need to replace the fridge is almost always an immediate and essential need.

Beneficiaries are often told by Work and Income staff to buy poor quality second-hand goods when this is exactly what they did the year before and the year before that.  They are told by case managers that because Work and Income lent the money for the previous second-hand piece of crap they can’t be helped again.   They are told to borrow from friends.

Most of the times though beneficiaries end up going to loan sharks who are more than willing to feed off desperate people..

Work and Income need to be real.   The directions they receive from Paula Bennett need to be real.

Mr Howell also points to the Social Security (Welfare Fraud and Debt Recovery) Amendment Bill which will make it harder still for beneficiaries with debt to Work and Income.  Up until now debt recovery can be negotiated. The Bill, if passed will make this much harder as bizarrely the explanatory notes to Bill state the beneficiary’s hardship will not be taken into account when assessing repayment of loans should assitance be given for the car registration or replacement fridge in the first place.   This will only drive beneficiaries more and more to the loan sharks.

ENDS

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