NZ Dr. Newman highlights the dark underbelly of welfare

1 in 8 working age NZ adults are on the dole. How sad. Especially for the children.

Dr. Muriel Newman discusses the dark underbelly of NZ welfare:

"The underclass is the dark underbelly of New Zealand ’s welfare system: unskilled, uneducated, teenage girls getting pregnant and going on welfare to raise children fathered by transient partners who have no intention of ever taking any responsibility for the mother or the child. Tragically, all too many of these children end up being shaken or molested, bashed or neglected, often ending up in state care. Denied proper love, care, and protection, as well as adequate healthcare and a decent education, a large proportion of these children gravitate to gangs and onto welfare, unable to escape from the deadly grip of the dependency cycle they were born into.

Entrenched long term welfare dependency is the scourge of our society. Permitted to destroy the life opportunities of generations of children, it is a real blight on New Zealand ’s social policy record. And while successive governments must share culpability for the magnitude of this problem, at last there is a faint glimmer of hope that something might be done to address this scandal.

The Welfare Working Group, established by the government in April to conduct a wide ranging review of New Zealand ’s welfare system has been looking at the problem of long-term welfare benefit dependency. Asked to come up with some recommendations (by the end of the year) on ways to turn around the growing benefit numbers and poor social and economic outcomes, the Working Group was asked to consider a wide range of issues: how long-term benefit dependency can be reduced and work outcomes improved; how to promote opportunities and independence from benefits for disabled people and people with ill health; how welfare should be funded; and whether the structure of the benefit system and hardship assistance in particular, is contributing to long-term benefit dependency.[2]

Last week, the Working Group released an Issues Paper outlining the results of their initial investigations. It does not paint an optimistic picture of the state of New Zealand ’s welfare system."

Stats of New Zealanders on the dole:

"As at the end of April, over 365,000 working aged people were receiving welfare benefits - one in eight of the working age population. Of those, around 75,000 were on the dole, 66,000 were receiving a sickness benefit, 96,000 an invalid’s benefit, 108,000 the domestic purposes benefit, 6,000 a widow’s benefit, 3,000 an emergency benefit, and over 2,000 teenage mothers were receiving an emergency maintenance allowance (the sole parent benefit available for those who do not qualify for the DPB - girls who are too young, new immigrants and so on). While these figures included the 13,800 partners of people receiving one of the main benefits, there were an additional 14,000 people under the age of 18 and over 65 who were also receiving full benefits, bringing the total number of welfare recipients to 370,000."

So if NZ has about 4,000,000 people, that means 9.25% are on welfare? Oh, no wonder Maori always want free stuff: "As at 30 June 2009, 43 percent of Domestic Purposes Benefit recipients were Māori."

The Maori political party, based on race, is pushing for separatism, the rights to foreshore and seabed and lots of free stuff for "their people". Looks like they learned some really good lessons from USA Democrat party's Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who work hard to keep "their people" enslaved as well. For $$. They should emulate better USA black leaders like Thomas Sowell, Alfonso Rachael or Kevin Jackson instead.