Abuse of beneficiaries must not continue

Madam Speaker,

This afternoon, I asked the Government some questions about the way in which at least some offices and some individuals within Work & Income continue to abuse and harass people who come in for assistance.

While I’ve been aware over the years of ongoing issues, I had, perhaps naively, hoped that after so many years of a Labour-led Government, with a relatively benign approach to welfare, things would be improving in comparison to the attitudes and culture rampant in WINZ in the late 90s.

However, I felt impelled to take action after last week receiving reports from two different districts, reports which highlighted the fact that for some Work and Income case officers, the idea of treating the people who come to them for help as ‘customers’ worthy of anything approaching the kind of respect a retailer would show a real customer is indeed a total nonsense.

For example, how about the beneficiary in the Rotorua district, Ms Tara Marks, who was told by a smirking male case officer to ‘fuck off’ - when, with her baby in her arms, she was trying to apply for a grant for food assistance?

While the facts of the situation are in dispute, it seems that MSD locally accepts the case manager made this remark. I do hope the strongest possible message is sent to that
office, and to all case officers around the country, that such language, and the underlying attitude it represents, have no place in today’s Work and Income offices.

The second case of this nature involved the Gisborne office, where a woman reports an extremely high level of harassment and bullying from staff, to the point where she is now too frightened to go to the office, something she, of course, has to do on a regular basis if she is to continue to receive the benefit on which she is dependent for survival.

From Murupara comes a further report of a case manager screaming right into the face of a beneficiary she is supposed to be there to help. That manager is evidently still employed.

Beneficiary advocacy groups and other local people advise that cases like these are far from isolated. Not only front line case officers, but also security guards, are being used to intimidate people who are already totally at the mercy of the State.

The Minister advised this afternoon that not many beneficiaries complain, and therefore it’s not an issue. However, she doesn’t seem to realise how hard it is for people at the end of their tether, often with literacy, health and poverty issues, to actually take complaints against what seems to them like an all-powerful Government department.

My fear, from a policy perspective, is that front line case managers are under such pressure to push people off benefits - that they resort to methods that are frankly intimidatory and demeaning to those they are supposed to serve.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had a welfare system in which all staff actually saw beneficiaries as human beings worthy of being treated with the same respect as other humans? Just because someone is unemployed, sick, injured, disabled, or a sole parent doesn’t mean they should be told to “fuck off”, or be treated to heavy stand over tactics.

It is really worrying that, in a period of low unemployment and with fewer people on benefits overall, we are seeing a continuation of this kind of harassment. I hate to think what will happen when unemployment goes up again, as it is bound to do, and I hope the department will do everything it can to continue working to change the culture of the ‘90s which still seems to exist among some staff.

Yes, people who are on benefits – or trying to get onto them - can be difficult to work with. Anyone who is struggling to survive from one end of the week to another, who may be suffering health problems, and who lives at the mercy of an all powerful government department tends to be stressed, and can find it hard to negotiate calmly with the case manager who holds their life in their hands.

However, this is all the more reason that staff should be trained and competent. Work and Income should have an ethos of public service which understands and acknowledges the realities of the lives of the people with whom it works.

I call on the Government to immediately do three things.

First, MSD should do everything it can to end this culture of abuse wherever and whenever it occurs.

Second, skilled beneficiary advocates should be involved as a matter of course in training front line case workers.

And third, Work & Income should apologise to all those people who have been intimidated, harassed and bullied by their staff in recent and current times, and start again with a new ethos of respect and empowerment, rather than intimidation and humiliation.

The Ministry has talked at length recently about dealing with the problems of doctors being bullied into writing forms for sickness benefits.

Well, I think in all fairness, the Ministry should also be doing everything it can to train and support its staff to cease their bullying tactics in relation to the powerless and vulnerable people they are supposed to be there to help.