Yes, we are going to have fun with this one.
Today’s wellbeing budget announcement means little for Manurewa mother of nine, Memory Brown.
Ahead of today’s opening of the Government’s books, Ms Brown was hoping there would be a bit more money for her to buy food, clothing and furniture for her family.
“The budget we live off with my nine children, we can’t even afford to eat after we pay our rent,” she said as she gathered with others outside the local Work and Income office this morning.
Speaking to 1 NEWS following the 2pm Budget announcement, Ms Brown said her family would not be much better off with just an extra $10 in the bank each week.
“It’s something but it’ll get us an extra two milk and a couple of breads every week or maybe for the day,” she said.
“I have 12 people in my household and two milks go like nothing, it goes within maybe five hours,” she said.
To get by each week she says she would need at least an extra $100-$150.
“We spend at least $10 just on milk daily, that’s just giving the kids breakfast before they go to school and cup of teas or milos for the kids’ bottles at night. It’s very expensive to live and you don’t even get that on the benefit,” she says.
Ms Brown says she had to visit Work and Income today for help with food and petrol, because there “wasn’t enough left over this week to put food on the table.”
TVNZ.
This was the expectation of the Wellbeing Budget: that beneficiaries might get another $100 per week. The Greens have fuelled this expectation and now a raft of beneficiaries are disappointed.
Correct me if I am wrong, but she will be receiving a sizable benefit anyway, as she is paid an extra sum for each dependent child. In other words, she is already one of the richest beneficiaries in the country. Perhaps ‘rich’ is not the right word, but she will receive more than a lot of working people on low incomes do each week. Just think about that.
We can talk about choices and personal responsibility all day, and this was the message that the previous government was trying to send. This government though, supported by the Greens, is a government for people who do nothing. She may only be getting an extra $10 per week, and maybe, if she is strapped for cash, it won’t go far, but she could always get a job.
She also conveniently ignores the fact that working people get nothing from this budget. Absolutely nothing. They may be the people paying for her and her 9 children, but clearly, she has no sympathy for them at all. Of course not. This government beats taxpayers to a pulp. Why should she do any different?
Some people will say 9 children is too many. Personally, I believe it is a choice. If you want to have 9 kids, then go ahead… but on one condition. You fund them, you raise them and you pay for everything yourself. Otherwise, don’t have them. This government encourages people to have as many children as they want… and the government will provide. This is madness.
