Youth beneficiaries – bludgers or bludgeoned?

By Tina Helm, Like Minds, Like Mine Mental Health Promoter

The announcements made last week about the proposed changes to youth benefits came as something of a blow to me, I must say.  Not to mention the comments underneath the online news items, from what appears to be the majority of New Zealanders, who seem to believe that there needs to be a “crack-down” on young people receiving welfare and that young people need to get up off the couch and go and get a themselves a job.

Do New Zealanders actually know WHY teenagers under 18 would be receiving a benefit?  I don’t believe this was very prevalent in the media around the announcement. There are two reasons and two reasons only.  One is if you have dependent(s) that you have to financially support, and one is if it is unsafe for you to live at home.  And this is where I fit in.  

When I was 16 years old I left home, not because I wanted to or because I felt like I was grown up enough to make it in the big wide world by myself, but because it was the only option I had if I were to be a safe and healthy individual.  I won’t go into the details, but it was one of the most frightening things I had had to do.  

WINZ didn’t make it easy to receive financial assistance, or any other assistance for that matter –none was offered to me. I was made to go through a psychological assessment – not as a means of offering me psychological support after any trauma I had experienced, but to ensure that I wasn’t lying about my situation and that I should be entitled to my $170 a week (now, 16 years later, despite massive price changes in food, rent and other living costs, the maximum entitlement remains the same).  

And I was one of the lucky ones who hadn’t had to go through this process while under CYF (Child Youth and Family) care. These young people, through failures in placements and being moved around  – have often long left the education system. This makes the barriers to access to education even wider.  With more adequate supports and care these young people would have a better chance of becoming engaged in education and employment.

Are alcohol and cigarettes really a problem here?

The reforms the Government has been talking about will mean that these young people will not be allowed access to the full benefit amount and will, instead, have their rent and bills paid for them, with only a very minimal amount of “real” money.  This is a way of “cracking down” on teenagers who spend their benefit on alcohol or cigarettes.  

The fact is that, legally, one isn’t allowed to purchase these items until they are 18, so what’s the problem? Is this a case of blaming “dole-bludging” young people for the youth culture of drinking in New Zealand? I’m sorry, but this is simply un-called for and unfair.  Neither is there any evidence being supplied that shows that Independent Youth Benefit recipients are spending their weekly allowance on alcohol and cigarettes. This seems to be an absolutely pointless means of restricting youth benefit recipients and vilifies those who have already been failed too many times.

Food stamps will be provided to young beneficiaries, including young mothers on the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB).  Anyone who has ever been into a WINZ office will know how demeaning it is just stepping foot in there.  Anyone who has ever received an emergency food allowance - because the amount that WINZ offers through weekly benefits just doesn’t reach the required amount to cover bills and living costs - will know how degrading and stigmatising it is to produce a voucher with a big WINZ logo on it. 

Placing young people at greater risk of danger

Combined with the risk of instability in living conditions and the potential need to move from one house to another, the limiting of access to individuals’ funds will result in young people needing to wait for bureaucratic processes before they can change homes. This may be placing young people at greater risk of danger.

Another problem with limiting direct access to finances is the further disempowerment of young people who are already considered “at risk”.  By limiting individual control over finances we risk young people’s continued dependency on the state because they aren’t given the opportunity to learn how to budget or pay their own bills.

Another alteration in the current system is that 18-year-old DPB recipients will be paid childcare costs for one year after childbirth to force them to go into training or work as soon as possible.  Providing childcare for mothers who choose to go into work is a very important step, however, forcing mothers back into work, potentially before they are ready, is not going to be good for either mother or child.  

There is a common misconception that the rates of teenage pregnancy are increasing and that this is creating an even bigger burden on taxes. This simply isn’t the case: teenage pregnancies and abortions fell during 2009, which is perhaps welcome news that there are fewer unplanned pregnancies. In fact only 3.1% of the makeup of those on the DPB is under 20 years old.

There simply just aren’t enough jobs at the moment – and that goes for the whole population, skilled and un-skilled, educated and un-educated, adults and young people.  If the Government spent as much time creating jobs as it did focusing on the scourge of youth beneficiaries, which only make up 1600 people in total, then it might have a better chance of reducing welfare dependency and  unemployment rates, and increasing spending - which are, apparently, its aims.

Time to stand up for your children!

Next week is Pink Shirt Day, 14 April – which highlights that bullying, is not OK and won't be tolerated - so it’s a good time for me to ask the following question:

When are we going to stand up as a community and take responsibility for stopping the daily bullying of children in, and outside of, our schools?

The damage that is done to children by bullying, the constant fear of bullying, and the fear of reporting bullying, is not a small thing. It eats away at you. And let’s be clear about this, bullying is mostly just a euphemism for assault.

I am an everyday Kiwi parent of a teenage daughter and have had to deal with her being intimidated by two girls with a knife in our local park because they wanted her mobile phone, hit by thrown apples and other food, threatened outside the school gates, name calling and a friend of hers who was assaulted last year in the local mall.

I feel helpless and have lost patience.

With our schools:

• Saying they do deal with school bullying – when in actual fact they can’t see that there is a whole lot more that needs to be done.
• They think bullying is rare, but a lot of bullying is not reported to teachers because students are too scared of the consequences from of kids of speaking out. 
• Taking in students expelled from other schools is not a solution – it adds to the problem.

With the police:

• Saying they are too busy and that their hands are tied and “it’s too hard” because of the lack of resources.

With other parents:

• One mother put my child at risk by providing 13- and 14-year-olds with alcohol at unsafe party venues.

With the law:

• Which seems to have nothing to say about any of these situations.
• Where is the funding for the social services needed to bridge the gap between schools and police?

So this week I wrote to MP Tau Henare to let him know the terrible helplessness I feel. I said to him:

“The problem is we seem to protect youth criminals, we seem to want to look after them more than the victims. Schools are told they have to teach these children so their hands are tied, we need to help them so they are able to deal with these bullies, and if they know of bullying and youth violence by their students outside of the school, they can work with the police to be able to deal with this.  The police can’t prosecute as the offenders are too young, we need to change this… what do we need to do to make our children safer?  Do we have to wait until the incident in Morrinsville? If there is something I can do as a parent to get the ball rolling to help you as an MP, I will be there. I can start petitions, I can write letters, I can get support - you name it I will do it.”

STEP UP, TAKE NOTICE, DO SOMETHING
After I started writing this blog, I decided to talk to the school and police again. I think they are truly concerned, too - but they need more support; they need more resources and legislation, and the Government needs to step up and start taking notice. Why are so many children so violent, and what is being done for them? How can the law protect the victims?

Today, I am offering my services as a petition writer, school helper, peacekeeping advocate - whatever it takes to get something done about this serious and potentially life-threatening problem.

And I welcome others to join me - I can’t do it alone.

COME TO OUR COMMUNITY MEETING
There is a community meeting on 20 April at local MP Paula Bennett’s office, Great North Road, Henderson, 7pm, with MPs Paula Bennett and Tau Henare, asking if people feel safe in their streets. I am going to attend that meeting, and I challenge the local school principals and constables and other key members of our community and parents to attend as well.

I try to tell my daughter that I guarantee nothing will happen to her if she speaks out. Wouldn’t any parent want to be able to say this to their child and know that it is true?

NZ Herald article about another mall assault

NZ Herlad article about kids' misbehaviour rated No1 social issue

Keshlar Inglis, Parent

Are you Green? Do you care?

People are different. What raises the passion in one person is often, sadly, of no concern to another. My limited amount of activism has centred on social justice and human rights issues, such as poverty and domestic violence. If it’s not about people (or my version of that) it goes nowhere with me.

So I need to explain that I started reading Prosperity without Growth – Economics for a Finite Planet* by a British author, Tim Jackson, with a similarly open (!) mind. I had an excuse. I was only doing it to appear smart – someone had asked to talk to me about a ‘sustainability’ proposal and I wanted to pick out a few key phrases from the book to show off my ‘expertise’.

If you approach climate change and sustainable economies in the same dismissive gung-ho way, this is the book for you!  It is about people! For example in the chapter ‘Flourishing within Limits’ Jackson talks about how the drive to consume is defining our individual identities, our ability to communicate, our sense of belonging. He says it would be impossible to halt or lessen consumption without replacing it with other activities with purpose and meaning. He talks about the ‘social recession’, which is caused by the same reinforcing cycle of ‘anxiety and novelty’ in an unequal society.

What has this got to do with being Green?

The push to consume uses up the world’s resources, with the Western world living as though it had three to five planets worth of raw materials and energy sources to draw on. To meet our short-term expectations (for profit and consumption), our future is being bartered off.

Many of us will be following the uprisings in Egypt and also in other countries in the Middle East with their demands for democracy and better living standards. The news is exciting – it’s uplifting for those changing the course of history. It’s also a reminder that western countries like ours, with our high standard of consumption and over-use of resources, do not exist in isolation.

Jackson points out that an economy where the whole world (including the Middle East) achieves affluence would need to be 15 times the size of today’s economy by 2050 and 40 times bigger by the end of the century. My grandson will be 90 in the year 2100; we are not talking about never-never land.

I can’t pretend this is a comprehensive book review – it was never intended to be. Just between you and me, there may have been a few chapters around economic theory that I have saved for later. But take a look – it’s worth your while. Request it at your library if you can’t see it on the shelves. But think twice before you buy it.

Dale Little, Mental Health Promoter, Mental Health Foundation

*Jackson T (2009) Prosperity without Growth – Economics for a Finite Plane  Earthscan England