by PETER GRACE
AUCKLAND — A Catholic presence was evident at the Mangere Impact event from August 5 to 7 at the WINZ office in the Mangere Town Centre.
Trained advocate Lisa Beech
NZ Catholic asked her why people swamped this event, instead of turning to WINZ.
“People are really used to being turned down,” she said.
She explained that it stemmed from the cut in benefits in 1991. One of the justifications then was that there were all sorts of assistance — “and there are. I can show you. Pages and pages of government programmes.
“One of the ones is Special Needs programme, and there’s pages and pages (as she holds up a quite thick file) of how that works.”
It is really complicated, Ms Beech said.
“One couple said they would never have come and asked for help, because they were shy and afraid … and in this case we got one of the toughest case managers, and his eyes were full of tears. He saw the need as well as I did.”
Ms Beech said that what is really nice is how many Catholic groups were there.
“Two of us from Caritas, Cathy Bi and me. Sisters Margaret and Anne from Sisters of Mercy, Wiri. Some of the runners … are from SVDP. Theresa Hellesoe from south Auckland SVDP is a really good benefit advocate. And Maya Bernardo from Pax Christi.”
Some people came only because they could have an advocate by their side.
“They can come from anywhere. I had a woman yesterday from Otara who has not been into the Otara office for nine months, and she came here because she thought she could get help,
and the crazy thing is she saw an Otara person here who said, ‘Why didn’t you go into the Otara office?’
“And she said she didn’t go in because she didn’t know if she would cry, or hit someone. And her request was really modest — to replace two mouldy mattresses for her kids.”
Helping her doesn’t cost the government.
“It’s not a grant — she needs to be paying it back at $10 a week.”
A lot of people trying to get in don’t have access to credit “and it makes them very vulnerable to the loan sharks”.
The government has said it doesn’t matter if they cut the benefit down, because the support will always be there.
“But it’s very complicated … so people find it very difficult.”
What is more important for her than helping people with advances, Ms Beech said, is taking the opportunity to check their basic entitlement, to make sure they are getting everything they need.
“One couple yesterday were on the wrong kind of accommodation support, and when they left yesterday, just by sorting that out … they have lower rent payment and more accommodation
supplement — which is probably more significant in the long run than just getting a loan.”
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