Auckland Action Against Poverty hits back at Government over WINZ queues

Saturday, 6 July 2019

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

The Social Development Minister will be meeting Auckland community groups on Monday, hot on the heels of frustrations that people are queuing for hours in bad conditions outside a south Auckland Work and Income office.

While the meeting has been planned for weeks to provide an update about the Ministry of Social Development's latest initiatives, a key attendee is Auckland Action Against Poverty (AAAP), which is at the centre of a row over Thursday morning queues at the Manurewa Work and Income office.

This week Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported about 70 people were waiting to apply for hardship assistance outside the Manurewa office, in the cold and rain, around 7.30am on Thursday. A man said he had been there since about 2am.

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

Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni.

* Parents queuing in darkness, rain for hours to get emergency grants**

The queues form every Thursday - the day AAAP provides its free advocacy service at the Manurewa office to help people apply for hardship grants.

AAAP and the Ministry of Social Development have butted heads over the issue, with the ministry saying Work and Income had tried to work with AAAP to manage the queues, while AAAP said that wasn't the case and the queues would be there regardless.

Sepuloni said she was advised the long queues were 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.

Work and Income regional commissioner Mark Goldsmith told RNZ numerous attempts had been made to work more closely with AAAP, 'but they have refused'.

'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.'

Auckland Action Against Poverty coordinator Ricardo Menendez March.

But a post on AAAP's Facebook page on Saturday said Sepuloni and Goldsmith's comments 'ignore that whether we're there or not, the need for advocacy and hardship assistance will be there, because benefit levels are below the poverty line and the cost of housing keeps increasing'.

AAAP coordinator Ricardo Menéndez March couldn't be contacted on Saturday morning, but in a series of overnight posts on Twitter he said he was glad AAAP had 'shone a light on the issue'.

'For all the Govt lip service to kindness the culture at Work and Income remains the same,' Menéndez March tweeted. 'It's categorically untrue we've refused to engage with MSD re:Manurewa. We've been clear the queues are a product of hardship.'

Menéndez March described a Ministry of Social Development Facebook post saying 98 per cent of all hardship grants were granted at Manurewa - regardless of whether AAAP was involved - as 'bizarre'.

'People get turned away/deferred for emergency assistance at reception level. MSD doesn't classify this as declines,' Menéndez March tweeted. 'Re: hardship granted. Ppl get far less than what they're entitled to (eg. $50 vs $150 food 4 a family).'

In another tweet he said: 'So while a lot of hardship grants are qualified as 'granted', in truth they are only partially so and the presence of an advocate is what gets them across fully. Also, the issue is that people are getting declined at other offices on other days, not so much when AAAP is there.'

On Saturday AAAP spokeswoman Kathleen Paraha said she would be attending the meeting on Monday with Sepuloni. She said AAAP had been encouraging politicians to visit the Manurewa office on Thursdays 'but they don't come'.

Paraha disagreed with Goldsmith's statement - that case managers were available to see clients from 8.30am on Thursdays but that AAAP could only send a few clients in at a time because of limited advocates.

Auckland Action Against Poverty spokeswoman Kathleen Paraha.

'They are limiting how many people we see at a time, so I try to push them through as fast as I can; get them their appointments and get them out of the rain … especially the elderly,' Paraha said.

On Friday, 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.

'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.'

The Government had announced funding for 263 new frontline MSD staff in the next four years. The value of hardship grants had gone from $81 million in the March 2018 quarter to $128.5 million in the March 2019 quarter.