Minister responds to Manurewa Work & Income queue problem

Friday, 5 July 2019

People are waiting in the pouring rain for hours outside Work and Income's Manurewa, Auckland office.

A line of nearly 100 people stood outside the Manurewa Work and Income office Thursday morning.

Starting as early as 2am, they stood in the pouring rain, shivering for hours as they waited for the office to open, all in the hope of getting some vital government support in the form of a hardship grant.

It's the same every week, because Thursday is the day that Auckland Action Against Poverty provides its free advocacy service to help people apply for the grants.

AAAP coordinator Ricardo Menendez March said they had been operating from the Manurewa Work and Income office on Thursdays for about two years. The queues are getting worse but are nothing new.

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'It's something we've been trying to highlight for quite a while,' he said.

The front of the queue waiting outside Work and Income's office in Manurewa on Thursday

'We know beneficiaries have been the most disproportionately impacted by the rising cost of rent. More people than ever require hardship grants to get by.'

The arrangement with Work and Income was that AAAP advocates were allowed to help 65 people in the queue on Thursday mornings. There were usually about seven advocates at the office, and they interviewed those 65 people.

He understood the number was set at 65, partly because that was the number Work and Income thought the office could handle.

'In reality we always see far more. People have the right to have a support person at Work and Income… Throughout the day we end up helping far more people, explaining to them the process and making sure the case managers are doing their work and following the law adequately,' he said.

People came from all across Auckland, and some had even come from Waikato, to get help from the advocates. Generally, they had not had a good experience at their local Work and Income office.

The biggest need was for food grants, followed by help with electricity costs, then clothing, particularly during winter. Some people also wanted help with travelling expenses for medical appointments. The large majority of the people AAAP worked with had dependent children.

Minister of Social Development Carmel Sepuloni said the Government had increased hardship grants significantly.

'No one wants to see our most vulnerable standing in the rain waiting to get the support they are legally entitled to receive,' she said.

'That's why this Government has sent a clear instruction to frontline MSD staff that anyone coming in is to be provided with the full financial support they are legally entitled to.'

'As a result of this instruction the number of hardship grants provided by this government has increased 60% year on year. The value of hardship grants has gone from $81m to $128.5m from March 18 to March 19.'

The Government has also announced funding for 263 new frontline MSD staff over the next 4 years.

'However I am advised that the long queues seen at Manurewa are the result of benefit recipients being encouraged by their advocates to all congregate at the same time on Thursdays.

'The queues can be avoided if AAAP works with MSD to deal with these cases in an orderly way across the week, rather than creating a bottleneck that forces everyone to be there at once in the rain' Sepuloni said.

Auckland Action against Poverty coordinator Ricardo Menendez March.

MSD Regional Commissioner Mark Goldsmith also raised concerns about bottlenecks on Thursdays.

'AAAP create a one day demand at Manurewa through 'impact days' not experienced at any of other offices,' he said.

'We have case managers able to see clients from 8.30am but AAAP can only send a few clients in at a time because they only have a limited number advocates available (yesterday they had seven).

'Clients are waiting longer than they need to. We would be happy to pre-book appointments with clients and AAAP advocates so clients don't have to wait, but so far AAAP haven't agreed to this.

'We are also happy to book appointments for advocates and clients at any other of our 33 sites across Auckland, as some clients are having to travel across Auckland.'

Menendez March said AAAP worked at the Manurewa office because it had the greatest need.

'Manurewa is an area of high deprivation, which is why we are there,' he said.

The Manurewa WINZ office gave out $698,000 in Special Needs Grants for food last year, the highest in the country by more than $200,000.

For about one and a half years AAAP ran a similar programme in Clendon on Friday mornings, but stopped doing it last year because the demand was too high for the organisation's limited pool of volunteers.

The Ministry of Social Development said that 98 per cent of clients had their hardship applications approved, and that figure was the same whether they had an advocate or not.

However, AAAP said that beneficiaries were likely to receive small amounts, or even be turned away at reception, if they did not have an advocate.

'Beneficiaries aren't being made aware of their rights,' Menendez March said. 'If you don't know your rights… You could end up having a decline, or a really small amount of help.'