by PETER GRACE
AUCKLAND — Financial struggle and poverty are likely to hit increasing numbers of older people, says a helping agency manager, Stewart Love.
Mr Love is a service manager for Lifewise, a not-for-profit community and social development
agency that works with vulnerable and at-risk people.
Lifewise service manager Stewart Love and communication officer Charlotte Billing outside the New Lynn office.
He said he thinks a particular group likely to face serious difficulty are those from 60 to 75 who have never owned a home.
“They may have worked all their lives,” he said. “But now they’re superannuitants… They
can’t afford the rents, can’t afford accommodation — and what do we do about that?”
Mr Love said that such people might have around $20,000 annual income.
“The average rental for a flat in Auckland is $350 a week. That’s their super.”
Their biggest crime, he said, is that they never bought a house — and this is a group that is growing, especially in Auckland.
Mr Love said it was “interesting” that at a recent election meeting of candidates for Auckland Central, questions were taken from the floor — but were first written out on cards. “And when that question was presented to them, the word ‘elderly’ was deliberately deleted
from the question.”
Mr Love works with Sher Gestro, a social worker at the New Lynn office. She told NZ Catholic that what she is noticing right now is the level of homelessness.
She had learned that living in a boarding house and living in a caravan park are classed as homelessness, so that bumped the homeless figures up.
“I’m not sure if there’s an increase [in homelessness], but there’s definitely an increase in clients struggling with benefits.”
Mr Love said his feeling was that most clients have housing issues, financial issues, and relationship issues.
“And a lot of those relationship issues stem from their lack of money. To me, that’s the biggest trend.”
That was the difficulty for their client group, Ms Gestro said. “They don’t have the knowledge and they don’t have the choice. So if you have someone who is advocating or supporting — we know the questions to ask, but sometimes they don’t.”
Mr Love told NZ Catholic that on top of everything else, the government processes for beneficiaries can be draining.
“We were over at Henderson WINZ the other day, and we were there about one and a half hours — perhaps a couple of hours from the time we arrived until we left.” Yet beneficiaries
who had been there when they arrived were still sitting waiting to be seen when they left.
“And I have actually been in an advocacy role, and often when you have an appointment you can wait for an hour.”
Ms Gestro explained that Work and Income (WINZ) had restructured its systems so beneficiaries no longer had their own case manager. “So you don’t work with someone who knows your story, and you are sitting in close proximity to someone at the next desk telling their story,” she said.
Asked why the system was changed, she replied: “Economy…Getting people off benefits.”
It’s made so hard for some people that they are in despair, Ms Gestro said.
Mr Love said that when he used to work for Child Youth and Family, social workers met people on benefits. “So when people came in, a social worker who was on call was available to talk to the person. Now the two never meet, and I think that’s a loss of service, actually.”
Mr Love said the government is investing heavily in youth services, but they are set up so that WINZ no longer administers the benefit.
“So, if you are under the age of unemployment [benefit], you don’t go to WINZ. You go to one of those community based services.”
So a young person under 18 on a benefit, or the parent of a young person and on a benefit, go to those places. “You can’t rock up to WINZ … you can only do it online.” The system was managed only by those NGOs. But there is a difficulty. The NGOs get money for each one of
those cases, but they also get an incentive payment if people don’t go on a benefit.
The other group those NGOs work for are the NEETS (Not Engaged in Education or Training). “Now their job is to get you off that, and those NGOs will get a bonus payment … and then they get another bonus if that person is still off a benefit at the age of 20.
“So in some respects you could think that that’s positive, but … it’s almost that they have said, ‘We’ll write that generation off and start again with this lot’.”
He accepted that checks and balances were needed to stop cheating, Mr Love said, but he believed that the energy is focused too much on preventing that than on doing what is good
and helpful.
Lifewise communication officer Charlotte Billing, from the Auckland City office, said she thought the point about this generation being written off is pretty fair.
“It’s pretty difficult to live a lifestyle on the benefit, and once you are up against barriers to get a benefit, you get pretty resentful … and you are getting called a bludger,” she said.
Hi
I saw this article when I was looking for information about who else find it expensive renting a house in Auckland. This article said the biggest crime among the elderly is they never bought a house. I’m a single female turning 52 soon. I’ve been saving for years since I shifted to NZ but the first time I handed over my downpayment, the house was leaking and I’ve spend almost $2,000 for due diligence. So I decided to save more by going without and scrimping and last year I saved more than the 20% deposit then I approached the affordable housing projects in Weymouth. After filling in all the necessary forms and attached proof of document, the result was I qualified to buy one of their houses. They even praise me for my ability to save the amount and how they wish that all their clients are like me. I was all excited but my hopes were dashed when they said that because of my age banks will think twice about giving me mortgage so I should pay a bigger deposit which in the end includes all my savings (at time amounting to $120K) plus all my Kiwisaver, nothing left for emergency! Because I don’t want to have mortgage stress, I was after a 2 bedroom or 3 bedroom house only but they insisted on giving me a 4 bedroom or even a 5 bedroom place which of course would need bigger deposit. They said they only have a few 3 bedroom place and the 2 bedrooms are meant for other demographic group so they are not available to me. They even tried to help me find a solution so I can go for the 5 bedroom place. The solution is to get flatmates. But I don’t want flatmates, I want privacy, peace and quiet that’s why I’m buying a small place. In the end, I ended up with not being able to buy a house because I’m too old for the 20% deposit and yet they insisted on giving me the 4 or 5 bedroom house. What a contradiction! Right now I’m still at this rundown rental unit that is like an oven in the summer and cold/damp/mouldy in the winter. I get sick in the winter in this house which is not being maintained by the landlord and because I’ve been recently diagnosed with chronic pain, I don’t know how long I can work. It’s been many years since I’ve been on holiday and would rather put my pay packet to increase my savings in the hope that I would be able to afford a house one day. I research about the latest on affordable housing and where next they will plan to build. I guess that would never happen considering the frightening house prices and my age. I now furiously save fearing that I might be out on the street when I’m no longer working or if I’m lucky to work until 65, when I retired. Not sure if there’s anyone out there who can sort of guide people like me who find themselves in this situation, wanting to buy a small place but too old for a mortgage. If you decide to reply or point me to the right direction, I would really appreciate. Thank you for your time and God bless.