WINZ

[lmsmith]

Has anyone had any dealings with them or know the ins and outs of the benefits? I'm in a bit of a situation, and they've said they're not able to help at all.

Basically here's our situation:

• I earn $200 a week working part time. I am studying also, so I get my course fees paid through a student loan, and also get living costs paid though my student loan ($160.00/week).

• I do not qualify for a student allowance because my parents earn over $78,000/year. Because I do not qualify for student allowance, and am under 24, I do not qualify for accommodation supplement.

• I do not qualify for any other benefits or supplements through WINZ because I am studying, do not have children, and because my parents earn too much money.

• My parents are not in a position to help us financially as they chose to send both my brother and I to private schools (my brother is still at school) and my dad is recovering from a heart attack and bypass operation, so they have significant costs of their own.

• He is going back to study on the 1 March 2010. He cannot get the living costs part of his student loan as he is not currently studying.

• He cannot get an unemployment benefit through WINZ because he is not looking for full time work; he cannot work full time because he is studying.

• He cannot get a student hardship unemployment benefit through Studylink because he does not qualify for a student allowance.

• He does not qualify for a student allowance or accommodation supplement because his parents earn over $78,000/year.

• His parents are not in a position to help us, because his mum is currently unemployed after her contract ended, and while they are earning over $78,000/year, they are on a single income.

• We do not qualify for any hardship or emergency benefits through WINZ because we are students.

• We do not qualify for any hardship or emergency benefits thorough Studylink because of our age and our parents income, and because we do not have children.

• Our rent is $350 a week, and we are unable to sublet/have boarders. We also have other bills, including electricity, phone and internet, all which we were able to pay comfortably while saving when he was working.

• We have sold almost everything that we can in order to have enough money to survive.

I feel like we've exhausted all options, and I'm looking for another take on it.

[Scottie841]

He could get a temp job at somewhere like allied work force

[Cricketman]

how long have you been living out of home? over 2 years and you can apply for a independant circumstances status whereby you say that your parents are not able to help you and wont help you (throwing in a white "we had a family dysfunction and now we hardly communicate at all" helps here, just to push the point, and this can be used even if your not away for 2 years yet.)

That should get you the allowance, but you cant get allowance and living costs ($160/ wk on the loan). so it may become what is easier for you and what pays more.

Brother should be the same.

How many rooms are you living in? 350 is alot for anything less than a 3/4 bedrm place. and if you've got a spare room but not using it (cos your not allowed to) your putting money into the landlords pocket.

May I suggest moving?

[lmsmith]

He could get a temp job at somewhere like allied work force

Tried that. He's done some one off jobs through student job search, but no more than 1 job a week.

Sounds like you need a cheaper house\flat to rent, or have kids! (lol)

Seriously, why are you paying that much rent? Is there only 2 of you? Cant you get a 1brm cheaper place?

Maybe go to cheaper Internet?

Cut back on power?

IF they tell you they cant help, then they cant. No matter wat yur situation is at the time! Ive found this out also. :-?

Our rent is pretty high, but we have a swimming pool and the rent was fine when he was working. It's not like we're in this situation because we've been living outside our means. We made a conscious decision to pay more for rent because we love the house and love the pool. Our place is 2 b/rms, but we can't rent it out (clause in contract that we agreed to, and we use it as a study area)

We can't move because we don't have enough money to pay new bond/pay for carpet cleaning etc. Also, there isn't a lot out there which is close to work/my parents place. We have to be pretty close as my dad often needs extra help at the moment. We're pretty good with power as it is, we spend about $130/month on power which isn't bad considering the pool pump and tank.

Can't change internet plan without paying an early resign fee, same with our phones.

It really sucks because we had all this money saved up to buy a house and it's taken us years to save, now we're back worse than what we started.

We've only been living out of home for 6 months, and I can't risk being caught lying on a WINZ application because I want to be a lawyer, any dishonesty charges and my whole career goes out the window.

[HaNs]

Move home?

[Caryl]

Is the "he" you refer to your partner or brother? Or are you flatting with your brother?

I would have thought if you can show that despite their earnings, your parents are now in no position to be able to help, there must be something WINZ can do.

I was lucky when my daughter finally decided to go back to school she had just turned 25 so was not means tested on our income :roll:

If you have the time, can you pick up extra work like dog walking, babysitting, childcare or something for a few extra $$?

Or, as Heir suggests, move back home?

[Scottie841]

Tried that. He's done some one off jobs through student job search, but no more than 1 job a week.

Try Allied they do building labour and if he is a good worker they will find him regular work. It is a minimum wage job but it is a job and he can work up until he starts studying

[bronze-dragon]

allied is also a good way to find permanent work with a company.

that was how I got my last job, worked for the company through allied and they liked the work I did so they hired me.

[lmsmith]

The he is my partner, sorry, this was part of the letter I've written to Paula Bennett so it doesn't make sense so much now the names are taken out.

I'll get him to have another look into allied, but last week they had nothing. He's done the dogwalking etc, but there's not really much out there in our area.

Neither of us can move home as our parents don't have room for us.

[paekakboyz]

ok so the conscious decision to pay more for the rental was made when one of you was working fulltime and now that you are both studying (or about to go back to study) the overall cost is too high?

Did you guys factor in how your income would change once your partner left full time employment to start study?

If staying at the current flat means you are going to continue going into debt or struggle to get by you might want to find a cheaper place - sure it will mean more costs short term but it'll cost you less than trying to stay in your current place.

You may not have been living beyond your means initially but unfortunately that seems to be the case now - I don't know too many student couples who have a pool at their flat!!

[bronze-dragon]

myself and Scottie both work fulltime and we don't have a pool

[Carlos & Siran]

You need to make a budget. List all expenses and cut anything that is unnecessary (sky, internet, etc) downsize your house(with just two of you a small one bedroom flat would be sufficient) do you each have a vehicle?, do you need more than one?. Make a budget for groceries...and so on.

I know it's hard, I've been there a few times, but I've found if you look at it as a means to and end it's a lot easier.

[smidey]

& decisions you make need to be made thoughtfully not emotionally. i would like a pool to but i simply cannot afford to get one so i don't, moving will be a huge help to you straight off.

Sounds like you need a cheaper house\flat to rent, or have kids! (lol)

are you suggesting this so she gets a weekly income from it?

[Barrie]

ok so the conscious decision to pay more for the rental was made when one of you was working fulltime and now that you are both studying (or about to go back to study) the overall cost is too high?

Did you guys factor in how your income would change once your partner left full time employment to start study?

If staying at the current flat means you are going to continue going into debt or struggle to get by you might want to find a cheaper place - sure it will mean more costs short term but it'll cost you less than trying to stay in your current place.

You may not have been living beyond your means initially but unfortunately that seems to be the case now - I don't know too many student couples who have a pool at their flat!!

agreed

Unfortunatly bad decisions are normally based on good times rather than the norm

I too do not have a pool. Would love to but simply cant afford it

Be aware that all these benifits your after are paid from my tax. I for one applaud the way that the government is looking at ways to reduce costs.... exactly the same as I have had to do in my bussiness and personal life

[Scottie841]

Is it a good idea to both be at uni or would it be best for one of you to be working until the other one has finished then the other one could study. That would mean that you are on a single income for a longer time but you would have a higher income until you can actually aford to both be at uni and have a life at the same time

[lmsmith]

ok so the conscious decision to pay more for the rental was made when one of you was working fulltime and now that you are both studying (or about to go back to study) the overall cost is too high?

Did you guys factor in how your income would change once your partner left full time employment to start study?

If staying at the current flat means you are going to continue going into debt or struggle to get by you might want to find a cheaper place - sure it will mean more costs short term but it'll cost you less than trying to stay in your current place.

You may not have been living beyond your means initially but unfortunately that seems to be the case now - I don't know too many student couples who have a pool at their flat!!

& decisions you make need to be made thoughtfully not emotionally. i would like a pool to but i simply cannot afford to get one so i don't, moving will be a huge help to you straight off.

My partner was working full time and studying. I was studying full time and working part time. He was going to continue working full time and studying, I was going to continue working full time and studying. When he was working full time, he was earning about $900/week, and I was earning about $350. Now he's earning nothing, and they've cut my hours because they're so behind budget. We had no way to know they would fire him or cut my hours, and we had enough saved so that we had 2 months to find more income. The problem is he hasn't been able to find another job because he can't lie when they ask why he left his last job. Employers want to talk to the person who fired him, and that person is generally being a **** on the phone.

The decision to take our house didn't take into account that my partner would be fired unfairly from his job. His employer has agreed that the dismissal was unfair, but it will be a while before we see any money. It's not like we simply didn't look ahead and forgot that we were going to study, our entire life was planned out and because he was dismissed unfairly, we're now in this mess. As soon as he can get another job, or the payout, we'll be okay again. He has a job for when he's finished uni, but that's 6 months away. Moving now will simply make our money problems worse because we're in a short term problem, adding debt in the short term will not help.

The house is about $20/week more expensive than other, like houses in the area with no pool. So in real terms, paying $1040 a year for a pool isn't bad for us, otherwise we'd both be going daily to the public pools anyway to do our underwater hockey training, so it works out cheaper than not having one.

Making a budget will also not help (I already have one). We're very good at budgeting, that's how we had 2 months worth of money saved up to live on for this time. Our problem is that no budget in the world will help us feed ourselves and pay our bills for the $10 we have left over a week. You see, this is the other problem. In order to move, we would have to take out a loan. We can't get a loan, because we don't own anything to put up as collateral. We can't get a credit card to pay for carpet cleaning etc because we don't have an income.

Trust me, we've thought long and hard about this and we're smart people. We didn't do this to ourselves (except maybe we were not pessimistic enough, we didn't plan for him to lose his job and not be able to find another one because his employer is badmouthing him to everyone), we are hardworking people who work hard for our money. We have fallen into a gap in the system where WINZ/Studylink can't help. All we need is some sort of benefit for 4 weeks until uni starts and to give us some breathing room to sort out the grievance, but apparently nothing exists. I've written to Paula Bennett in hope that someone can sort out some sort of emergency benefit that we can actually qualify for.

Unfortunatly bad decisions are normally based on good times rather than the norm

I too do not have a pool. Would love to but simply cant afford it

Be aware that all these benifits your after are paid from my tax. I for one applaud the way that the government is looking at ways to reduce costs.... exactly the same as I have had to do in my bussiness and personal life

Barrie, the benefits are paid from MY taxes too - I've been paying taxes for the last 7 years, so has my partner, and to say that someone shouldn't get a benefit simply because they were smart with their money and COULD afford things is ridiculous.

are you suggesting this so she gets a weekly income from it?

Don't worry, the people at WINZ suggested stopping studying and go on the benefit full time or having kids.

[lmsmith]

Is it a good idea to both be at uni or would it be best for one of you to be working until the other one has finished then the other one could study. That would mean that you are on a single income for a longer time but you would have a higher income until you can actually aford to both be at uni and have a life at the same time

We've looked into this, and it wont help. I have 2 years to go at uni, he has 6 months. I can't just do a 1/2 year because one of my papers is a full year paper and because of prereqs, it would mean I would have to spend another full year at uni. Also, I doubt I'd be able to find a full time job - it would mean leaving my job because they can't give me more hours, and I would have to reduce the pay I'm on. He only has 6 months left then has a job to go to, so it makes no sense to put his off either.

[lmsmith]

After Barries comment, I just want people to be aware that we're not trying to get something we're not entitled to. We are willing to pay back the money once we're on our feet again.

Before my partner got fired, we were earning about $1300/week, more than enough to pay our bills, our rent and have left over to save. It's not like we were living on the bones of our a** before. We did think long and hard before we took the house with the pool, and I don't regret it at all because in the long run, it's actually been cheaper for us (people come to our place instead of going out, we swim in it instead of going to the gym/pool, we eat in a lot more now than we did before). I estimate that we've saved about $2500 from having a pool (including the extra cost of the pool) because we've cancelled our gym and pool memberships and eat at home much more often.

Please don't think that we're stupid kids who don't know what we're doing; we do, we did think about it, we did get financial advice before we moved in. We knew what we were doing, we simply couldn't plan for the un-plan-able.

While I don't mind all of the advice in this thread, please keep in mind I started it for the purposes of asking if anyone had any advice on other things we might not have thought of or other benefits that might be available. I'm happy to answer/debate in this thread, and you're not going to hurt my feelings any more than anyone else has. However, before you judge me, please know all the facts, and take a moment to think if you would have done the same thing in my situation.

[smidey]

[

The house is about $20/week more expensive than other, like houses in the area with no pool. So in real terms, paying $1040 a year for a pool isn't bad for us, otherwise we'd both be going daily to the public pools anyway to do our underwater hockey training, so it works out cheaper than not having one.

the reality is if you have "X" coming in each week & that doesn't cover the rent in a nice area then you will have to move to a cheaper area so you can eat with what is left over from rent. I don't think WINZ should top up your weekly income so you can live in a nice area with a pool. I know what you are going through, the company i worked for this time last year went into liquidation & i had no job so had to take drastic steps to feed my children including moving from a place with a pool & sea views to a small farm house. I am now earning half what i was last year but because we had to make decisions like the place we rented, how often we went out, what furniture we bought, what i spend on fish etc we are fine now. Initailly its a shock but sensible decision making will quickly see you get through it.

say this to yourself when doing your budget "will i live if i don't have this?" & you may need to axe things you enjoy like under water hockey, that's life.

[Barrie]

Barrie, the benefits are paid from MY taxes too - I've been paying taxes for the last 7 years, so has my partner, and to say that someone shouldn't get a benefit simply because they were smart with their money and COULD afford things is ridiculous.

sorry

where did I suggest this?

Im pleased that you have paid taxes for the last 7 years

think of how I feel after paying taxes for the last 42 years and never getting a benifit and by the look of things I wont ever be able to retire

The simple thing is that benifits are hand outs and they need to be hand ups.

I think you should be able to get a government loan/hand up that has to be paid back before you are allowed to leave the country even on holliday

[Scottie841]

You could always sell a tank or 2 to cover the short fall if it is only going to be a month or 2 untill you are back on your feet. Just remember not to try and get $$$ for something that is only worth $$. You will need to sell them cheap to get cash quick but if that is what is needed then it might be the best option

[lmsmith]

the reality is if you have "X" coming in each week & that doesn't cover the rent in a nice area then you will have to move to a cheaper area so you can eat with what is left over from rent. I don't think WINZ should top up your weekly income so you can live in a nice area with a pool. I know what you are going through, the company i worked for this time last year went into liquidation & i had no job so had to take drastic steps to feed my children including moving from a place with a pool & sea views to a small farm house. I am now earning half what i was last year but because we had to make decisions like the place we rented, how often we went out, what furniture we bought, what i spend on fish etc we are fine now. Initailly its a shock but sensible decision making will quickly see you get through it.

say this to yourself when doing your budget "will i live if i don't have this?" & you may need to axe things you enjoy like under water hockey, that's life.

We can't move because we don't have enough money to pay new bond/pay for carpet cleaning etc. Also, there isn't a lot out there which is close to work/my parents place. We have to be pretty close as my dad often needs extra help at the moment.

Moving out of the area isn't an option because then I'd spend more than I'd save travellingto my parents house to help them out. I'd also have to pay to get out of my contract, as well as finding the money to move, money for new bond and getting the carpets professionally cleaned in the place we're in now. It's simply not practical to get into debt to move - the financial advisor we've gone to see agrees that it should be an absolute last resort because it isn't financially viable.

I've sold all but 2 of my tanks which I'd rather not sell if I can because one is my new marine tank that I'd never get close to what I paid for for it, the other one is at my parents place, so it's not costing me anything, and is proving my dad lots of enjoyment.

I've sold most of my fish already, except 3 marine fish and the guppies and BN that are hard to get rid of. All of the ones that are worth anything are gone, unless someone's in the market for some brown BN?

We're trying to be smart about what we sell, there's no point in selling something if we're not going to get close to what it's worth and will be buying another one in a couple of months anyway.

Barrie, I agree that benefits should be handups. This is exactly what I'm asking for, something to bridge the gap between now and 1 March when uni starts again.

[Caryl]

I can see why moving would not make sense and I know how hard it is to find bond money etc.

One thing you said gave me pause for thought. You said that you were eating in a lot more now. Why are you not eating in all the time? Many young people today say they are budgeting but it is a false budget. Takeaways and fast foods are not a cheap option and I am always amazed at how many people can afford to eat at these places. When my kids were little, McD was a birthday treat we saved up for, not a weekly (or in some cases daily) thing.

I know a couple who complain money is tight and they are having trouble managing but they have the latest big screen TV and fancy stereo system. They have broadband internet and Sky. They rent DVDs regularly and go out to the pub or movies. They both have cell phones with monthly plans. Believe it or not, these are not the necessities of life!

I have no idea whether you have any of these things but is it possible to cut some of them, or change a plan? I would suggest you start a vege garden too but it won't help you in the short term

Any chance your parents can help out with meals sometimes?

I have no objection to you trying to get a benefit for the short term. That is what they are there for. I think some are being a bit harsh and judgemental here.

[livingart]

2 minute noodles and weetbix are good

not together though

[David R]

We can't move because we don't have enough money to pay new bond/pay for carpet cleaning etc.

Your bond can be transferred from one property to another so you don't have to pay a new bond before getting the old one back. If you got a cheaper place then you'd also get something back from the bond to go towards the carpet cleaning/letting fee of a cheaper place.