WINZ Feilding

September 10th 08. i am a 58 year old invalids beneficiary. i have three conditions that are all chronic in and of themselves and am considered a high risk patient for heart attack and stroke. one of the conditions went undiagnosed for around twenty years. This almost resulted in my death. The condition is now being treated and I am improving a little every day I am a proud person and like to think I still have a reputation for honesty and integrity. I have been on a benefit now for a few years and until October last year felt nothing but gratitude for the assistance afforded me by my fellow countrymen and women. in October last year I was in the feilding branch of winz office discussing my needs with a new case manager.(almost every time you have reason to go into a winz office you see a new person) when she started asking me personal questions that had been gone over time after time with other case workers and the answers were already in my file. By the end of the interview I was a tad pissed off with her attitude and the completely inappropriate comments she was making. for instance what colour I considered my family to be, that I was always clean and tidy when I went in there so therefore couldn''t be that hard up and that I made more sitting at home on my bum than I would if I were out working.. In the end I said look lady if you think my life is so bloody marvellous you go and live my life and I will come here and do your job instead and I guarantee I will do a better job than you are doing right now. To say she was a little disgruntled at my comment is an understatement. She then got me to go to the bank yet again to get another copy of mortgage payments that were already on file. I obliged as you do when dealing with them and when I returned half an hour later was whisked into a side room and introduced to jo Rankin the winz investigator in feilding. I was told I was going to be investigated because they believed I was living in a de facto relationship with my ex-partner. there followed a two hour grilling about every aspect of my living arrangements at the end of which one of them shoved a hand written set of notes under my nose and told me to sign it as my statement. I refused. She then told me that I was entitled to have an advocate in the meeting with me. I thought that was jolly nice of her considering it was already over. . During the whole meeting the two women kept looking at each other and smiling smugly. They obviously thought they were being very bloody clever. They told me they were going ahead with a full investigation as they were not satisfied with my explanations. By this time I was furious and told them to go right bloody ahead as I had nothing to hide. I told them to refer to my file as all the proof of what I was telling them was in there. I was feeling very stressed by the time I left the office after being bullied in stereo and felt pretty much as the Jews must have after being grilled by the Gestapo. The night before I had gone to bed believing that I lived in the best country in the world. a country where the ill and vulnerable were protected by law. I thought that government departments like winz were brought into being for the express purpose of ensuring that the financial burden would not be too heavy to bear for people who were unable to earn a living through no fault of their own. That day I realised I could not have been more wrong. The whole system is geared to disadvantage beneficiaries as much as possible; the staffs is given 10% of any money they can get you to agree to pay back to them even though it is widely acknowledged that they know you do not in fact owe them anything. They are rewarded for being dishonest and misleading. in my case I had previously lived in another town and was unaware that your file was not forwarded but a new one was started at your new town of residence. When they told me they did not have that part of my file I insisted they get it as all the evidence they needed to verify what I had told them was in there. Months passed and I heard nothing. I thought that they had reviewed the file and realised I was telling them the truth. Well guess what. All the evidence that should have been on my file was conveniently lost. And I do mean all the notes that should have afforded me protection were missing. There was even one note that said there were applications etc missing from the file. I can''t believe that so little care was taken to ensure the records were complete and accurate. Their negligence has resulted in a year of stress for me when I could least afford it as it was adversely affecting my health. I have made a concerted effort to educate myself as to my rights since that day and have learned to my horror that even the way they have thus far conducted the investigation is illegal. Winz personnel continue to ignore the high court ruling on how they are to investigate a winz client. The first thing is they are not allowed to cold call you in off the street and question you as they did me. When I found out quite by chance that the investigation was still ongoing I made an appointment with them and took along an advocate to once again try to resolve the matter. During this second interview I was asked why I had not done what they said and gone to a lawyer and made a will naming my youngest daughter as my sole beneficiary. I pointed out to them they had no right whatsoever to tell me who to name in my will. Nor did they have a right to insist that I spent money on a lawyer when if was obvious I could not afford one. there was no resolution from that meeting all that happened was that I was subjected to further accusations and a we say you say form of conversation.; from the way she spoke to me it was obvious to me that she disliked me and was going to do everything in her power to have me prosecuted if she could. I had the feeling then that there was animosity toward me and that nothing I could say or do would deter her from her objective, that was to have me convicted of a crime she knew full well I had not committed. I was not aware at that time that she stood to make a substantial bonus if she succeeded. during that meeting i told her that I wanted the whole thing cleared up as soon as possible as I was trying to get custody of my granddaughter who is intellectually challenged and currently in the care of cyps. Looking after this child can be very stressful because of her extreme behaviours and I did not think that I could handle the added stress of the investigation not being completed. Much to my surprise she knew exactly who I was talking about and named the child and her mother. They were also asked to give me a copy of my file so I could see for myself what was or was not in there. I got the file a couple of weeks later and made a long report pointing out what was missing. at the end of that report I stated that at the conclusion of the investigation I intended to ask for an independent body to look at how it had been conducted as I felt it had been outside the law.  A few days after that Jo Rankin contacted cyps and said she felt they should not allow me to care for my granddaughter as I was dishonest and my ex-partner was an alcoholic. This was an unfounded accusation with no proof whatsoever. it was also illegal and contravened my rights under the privacy act. Luckily cyps agree with me and sent me proof of what had happened and been said. t that point jo Rankin lost all right to say she was only doing her job. She has proved beyond doubt that this is a personal attack on me and the right or wrong of it is unimportant to her as long as she can cause me harm. I have just yesterday sent an official complaint to Ruth dyson minister for social welfare, outlining jo rankins vindictive and illegal handling of my case and asking that she be dismissed from her post as a public servant. There is of course a lot more to this case none of which reflects badly on myself as I have never deliberately or with knowledge done anything illegal. I followed their advice to the letter and obeyed the rules as explained to me. please feel free to ask me any questions that may make this horrible nightmare a little clearer to you. My answer. You have found the same level of corruption that I did. Would you be willing me for to publish your story on the internet? I won't use your name is you don't want me to. Be a little careful of Dyson, like most politicians she ignores reality. The real beneficiaries are those employed in the system.  You are not alone and the number of people contacting me has double in the last month. Good luck. The next day. Lance Broughton www.lbrought.com lbrought@globe.net.nz   ----- Original Message -----   To: lbrought@globe.net.nz   Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 11:18 AM   Subject: re winz corrupt practices   Please feel free to publish but without my name please. This is still ongoing and Jo Rankin is not yet aware that I have laid a complaint through official channels. I will give you updates as  they occur. I was shocked by your experiences and relate to the way you feel. A year ago I  would not have believed that any of this could have happened. Luckily for me my advocate  knows Ruth dyson and has recently been attending committee meetings at parliament to   address the issues raised by so many beneficiaries. He has managed to build some rapport   with her and is going to discuss what they are doing to me with her. There is no guarantee that   this will help but I am ever hopeful. Call me naive but I still believe that there are some decent   people out there. I have just been told of a lady who has been battling fraud charges in   Auckland for two years now. They say she owes 160-000.00 because her daughter was   attending boarding school and therefore not living with her and she was the only child on her   benefit. She chose to take the child elsewhere during the school holidays as there were   problems about molestation of the child. The mother was doing everything in her power to   protect the child. So what does that say for the department? This is just one of the many I   have heard recently. Feilding office is renowned for their dirty tactics and their refusal to give   food grants in most cases. How many children I wonder have gone hungry to bolster their   performance ratings?   Thanks for replying to me. It makes me feel not quite so alone if I can help you in any way   don''t hesitate to contact me. I am only too pleased to help particularly if it stops the swine   from damaging some other poor undeserving soul   Regards   My answer Don't worry, I won't name you. But you can expect to be identified by those who know your circumstances. Will let you know when its online. It's about time somebody told WINZ where to go. I  have other people having problems. Lance Update 15/9/08

Please note these messages are displayed as they were recieved. In other words, I haven't edited anything.

Back to Reality WINZ

Over a year after my ex-partner and I separated I became ill and was forced to go onto a benefit that I hoped at the time would only be a stop gap measure until I could resume my duties as a level three community services worker,. Unfortunately this was not to be and I have remained on a benefit until this day. Of course if there was any way at all that I could go back to work and earn the money needed to support my daughter and myself, rather than have my life controlled by an institution that cares not at all for either of us, I would do so with great gladness. Even now I am still hopeful that some day, in the not too distant future, I may still be able to go back to work. It would certainly be a glorious change from the crippling boredom of staying at home 95% of the time. Throughout all of this time, my sole concern has been for the health, happiness and security of my daughter. I have accepted my limitations both physical and financial but have tried not to let them impact too heavily on her life. From the day my partner and I separated I encouraged him to keep a close and loving relationship with our daughter. He had done nothing to make me feel that she would be better off with him out of her life. Her love for him and his caring attitude toward her gave her security and an advantage most children of solo parents do not normally have. Every expert on child health says that children who have a healthy and close relationship with both a mother and a father figure are advantaged both in their school life and mental and emotional health. For all of the time that we were separated by distance he still, with my blessing, called around every day between three and four o''clock and had a chat to her after school before going to work. my ex partner and I do not see eye to eye on most things but when it comes to my child''s happiness we are in total accord, we both want the best for her and both love her dearly. We maintain a polite front with each other. As adults we have put aside our animosity toward each other so our daughter is not subjected to the stress it would cause her if we did not. The contact between the two of us is minimal and not usually more than a polite hello. There comes a time in your life when you have to put aside your feelings and do what you know is the best thing for the children entrusted to your care. When you must behave like an intelligent adult and subjugate your feelings for the greater good and remain calm and polite even when you feel like an angry response would be more satisfying. I like to believe that I have achieved the very best result for my daughter under very trying circumstances. This is reflected in the fact that she is turning into a caring and happy teenager. She has bought joy to my life every day of her life. She deserves the best that I can give her. Every child deserves the best, regardless of the status of the relationships of the adults surrounding them. I hope that I have given her the tools she needs to be a balanced adult with a good self image and a desire to be active in her community. The way I have mothered her will be reflected in how she mothers her children in the future. I have done my best to equip her well . She cannot be negated as a very important part of this investigation and her right to have a healthy relationship with both of us should never be ignored. It also cannot be ignored that she was the main reason that my case worker at WINZ exercised her right of discretion and gave her advice and approval for my ex to move onto the property to ensure her mental, emotional and physical safety. My request to the case manager was for her to investigate whether I could be given funding to have a caregiver live at the house with my daughter and I, who both have life threatening conditions, to ensure her safety firstly, and to assist me with light chores and to remind me to administer my insulin medication on time. I was having problems with memory and it is only recently that they have discovered the reason for that. Both my long and short term memory has been badly affected by apnoea. When tested it was discovered that I had not been asleep either in REM sleep or deep sleep for more than fifteen years. When I fell asleep I never went past light sleep because I stopped breathing between 30 and 50 times an hour, resulting in an oxygen level of only 70%. This dangerously low oxygen level and the lack of sleep is what caused the damage to my memory as well as extreme exhaustion, without insulin administered on a regular basis it was not possible to stabilize my diabetes, putting me at risk of going into a coma. I also have other health issues resulting in widespread chronic pain. it was becoming more difficult every week to cope with the most basic chores and I had become desperately worried as to what it would do to my daughters mental health if she found me either dead or incapacitated and had no one to run too for help. After going over all of this with the case worker she said I obviously needed a safety net put in place. It was her suggestion that I let my ex move back onto the property to provide that safety net for Rosie when I questioned her as to how that would be possible as I was receiving a benefit she told me that winz had powers of discretion where this sort of thing was concerned and since I obviously needed someone else living on the property it would be better for Rosie and a much cheaper option for winz if he was prepared to do as she suggested I went home and when he came to see my daughter I told him what the case worker had said and asked him if he would be prepared to do as she suggested...he agreed to the idea as long as I was sure that winz had said it was alright. I assured him that I had discussed the possibility with them after they had suggested it as an option. I explained that I had tried to get someone to live at the house with us and all the reasons why. He agreed that she needed someone close by to be safe. He also said he did not want to be responsible for reminding me to take medication, he has not done so to this day and my doctor is aware that I have always had problems remembering to administer injections sometimes being late and sometimes forgetting them altogether. The result is my diabetes is unstable still, with very high blood sugars. They often go over 30 and are rarely below 10. His interest is with Rosie alone. Her safety and happiness and her need for a stable home. I am grateful to him for his care of Rosie. When he agreed to move back he wanted to know how that would be achieved as he did not want any problems later. I relayed that to the case manager. We had already been separated for over a year and I would not agree to him living inside my home. She suggested we hire a caravan to avoid any speculation about our relationship because I was uncomfortable with the idea. The placement of Joe in close proximity to us has saved winz a huge amount of money. We owned three homes at the time, one I was living in one he was living in and one was rented out intermittently. We both owned the houses and both our names were on the mortgage. It was decided to top up the mortgage to buy a caravan for him to move into. It seemed the better option as it was expensive to rent and it appeared it would be some time that he would occupy it. It also afforded us independence from each other and privacy. I was very grateful to winz for their help and very grateful to Joe as his being there for Rosie had lifted a huge worry from my shoulders. The caravan that was purchased was not expensive but suited the purpose .he still occupies the same van. The van has been freehold from the day it was purchased and is not something that we pay half of each as stated by Jo Rankin to cyps. The situation has remained the same with winz full knowledge ever since. My health continued to slowly deteriorate and until recently I was very ill indeed. With the correct diagnoses finally being given just a few months ago. I now have a cpap machine that helps me to breath at night. I am now reaping the benefit of an average of four hours sleep a night and am very slowly gaining some strength. I have been advised by my health professionals that it will take quite a long time for me to have any real strength as my muscles had completely wasted away. When the muscles have been rebuilt it may also help to stabilise the diabetes and I will start to feel a lot better in myself.unfortunatly I also have arthritis and fibromyalgia and deteriorating spinal problems resulting in widespread chronic pain. I have also been diagnosed with early stage retinal myopathy and was sent a letter form the hospital explaining to me that I will eventually be black blind Time will tell if I can overcome any of this to the point where I can work once again. While I am very hopeful my health professionals are not. Regardless of their opinion I am working very hard at physiotherapy to try to gain the maximum benefit possible to my health. I can now walk without a cane and have the potential for even better gains yet. I still tire vey easily but no longer end up crawling on the floor in the evening because I can no longer stand. I moved to feilding to be near my elderly father and so my daughter did not have to travel through the manawatu gorge twice daily in order to attend school. I have in the past had no complaints about my dealings with winz and generally found the women I dealt with to be empathetic and helpful. in some cases they spent a lot of time advising me especially when I first became so ill I could no longer work. While under the dannevirke office I could not have asked for more polite or empathetic case workers. They understood my problems and did their best to make my transition from one benefit to another as hassle free as possible, in particular Marie Streeter and Donna Freemantle from Dannevirke did their best to make sure I was ok. Although my transition to the feilding office was at times difficult the caseworkers I was given were at first polite and as helpful as they were allowed to be. I did find it very difficult to manage financially when I came to feilding and applied once for a food grant that was denied as I was not quite up to my overdraft limit . It was not until the latest change in case worker that I felt I was slammed up against an unyielding brick wall. I seemed to stop being a human being and became someone who had her ""hand in the public purse"" to quote Maureen the latest case worker. I was told by winz in dannevirke that I was entitled to help with gardening and lawn mowing and also to someone to assist with day to day chores around the house. I thanked them for that and said as long as I could still do it myself I did not want to take the extra money. I felt it was important to do as much as possible for myself. It normally took me three days to complete mowing the lawn and I had difficulty moving after I had been working on them. I still do these chores myself even though my health professionals have said I should not be doing them. As long as I can manage to do it reasonably often I will continue to do so. I have not asked my ex for help with any of this as I felt it would not be right to do so. . Maureen made me feel I should not be being given any assistance as people like me were budging off the welfare system. For years I worked even though I felt weak and tired most of the time. I went on a benefit when things got so bad that I was falling asleep while I was at work and thereby endangering my clients. I was working as a level three community services worker .most of the time I was in high needs units. I went on the DPB for what I thought would be a short time, but when my doctor would not clear me to go back to work Marie streeter from dannevirke assisted me to be put on the invalids benefit. I put it off for close to twelve months from memory as I did not want to be classed as an invalid and wanted to return to work. My position was held for me for twelve months. I did not feel Maureen had any understanding of what my life was like and felt I was accorded no respect by her whatsoever. Her attitude toward me was appalling from the very first. within a half an hour I had been told I couldn''t be that hard up as I was always clean and tidy when she had seen me come in there (suggesting I must be dirty and unkempt if I was a beneficiary) my reply was you don''t need to look as though you have just crawled out of a salvation army bag even if you have and soap and water is cheap. She then remarked that I was ""getting more sitting on my bum at home"" than I would get if I were working. When I pointed out that I had mostly held managerial positions and was earning more than that twenty years ago she became very confrontational. It was obvious to me that she did not expect me to answer her crude observations. To my utter horror she then asked me if I considered us to be a white or a Maori family. I told her that when I looked at my daughter I just saw my daughter not a colour. I was very offended that such a question should ever be posed in New Zealand. she was treating me as though I was a long term dole bludger with no medical reason to be on a benefit .I reminded her I was on an invalids benefit for very good reason and if she thought my life was so great she could live in my home in the pain I was in and I would go and do her job and do a better job than she was doing right then. She spoke to me as though I was a worm that had crawled out from under a rock. To say I was highly offended goes without saying. She then sent me to retrieve more information from the bank that was already on the file but as I was getting a little hot under the collar I did as she asked to give myself a little cooling off time. I think it is true to say we disliked each other within five minutes of meeting. I did not like her superior attitude and racial slurs and she did not like my having the cheek to answer questions that were designed to shut you up, a reply was not expected.. I returned to the winz office a half hour or so later with the requested information. Maureen saw me come in and rushed over to meet me almost at the door .she ushered me into a side room so we could ""speak privately"" Jo Rankin the investigator for winz walked in the door and was introduced to me. I was then told to take a seat. What followed was a two hour bully session with them trying to make me say that I was living in a defacto relationship with my ex who they kept referring too as my husband. No matter how many times I asked them not to do so as I had never been legally married to him and had not been in a relationship with him for years they continued to insist on calling him that as though saying it would make it real. After suggesting I am a liar and generally trying to intimidate me I told them to go look in the file as all the answers too their questions were in there. They then informed me that they did not have the dannevirke part of my file so I told them to get it as it was winz themselves who had told me to let my ex move onto the property. In my opinion they could not approve this happening at that time, and then years later, when it suited them, say it was not acceptable. During this meeting I was also told to go to a lawyer and make out my will naming my daughter as sole beneficiary. This was apparently to make sure that my ex received no money from me after my death even though he was the person who would be raising my daughter with the help of my sister. That is she would probably stay with my sister during the school week and return to her home and father for the weekends and holidays. At the end of this inquisition they tried to get me to sign their handwritten notes, written in their words as my statement to them. I refused to do so as I had by this time twigged that something was very out of whack in the way they were going about this. They were smug and smiling at each other as though they were really enjoying themselves. Just before I left the room they told me I was entitled to have an advocate at the meeting with me., and then smiled at each other hugely. I have rarely felt more disgusted with the behaviour of two adult women. In my life. Those two hours completely changed the way I view winz. I went from trusting and believing what they said to knowing they could not be trusted in any way at all. I realized that staff at the dannevirke office was the exception not the norm. I told them at the end of that meeting that I was going to get an advocate and would not have any further meetings with them without one. I reiterated once again that they needed to get my original file from dannevirke. It is obvious that at the time of that meeting I believed that the information they required was in the dannevirke file. Every time I had meetings with the dannevirke staff, notes were made to record what the meetings were about and the decisions resulting from them. Sometimes they worked on computer, if for instance you wanted assistance with food, but normally hand written notes were made throughout the meeting. As I was interviewed in a cold call with no warning whatsoever it is obvious that at that point I did believe, that the information they were telling me they needed, was easily proved as true if they just read the dannevirke file. I did not hear from them again and months passed. I was of the opinion that they had retrieved my file and after reading it knew that I had been telling them the truth. I was told by the advocate that I contacted after that meeting, that when they realised I had been truthful with them they would still not contact me just in case they wanted to investigate me at some point in the future. I thought at the time that this was unacceptable. They should not leave a sick person to worry without need, but I was not surprised that doing so would be something the investigator would not feel was morally wrong. I was not given the impression that they cared at all for those in their care, in fact the impression I got was just the opposite It was not until I went in for my annual review that I found out that an investigation was still being conducted. It was near the end of the review when Maureen slipped into the conversation ""of course we will just keep paying you as usual until the investigation is finished"". I was utterly shocked and said what do you mean when it is finished? I thought it was over months ago."" Oh no"" says she ""it has only just been started. Jo has been very busy and has only had the time to get to it lately. I was flabbergasted at her cavalier attitude. When I pointed out that if I had committed murder I would have been accorded a timely investigation, she agreed but said they could do what they liked. I went home and rang my advocate who was not surprised at all. I then rang and made an appointment with Jo Rankin with the intention of answering any further questions she had to assist in the investigation being bought to a conclusion. When my advocate and I attended that meeting we discovered to my horror that there were no notes on my file about the decision made by winz, at their discretion, to allow Joe to move onto my property. We then were subjected to a you say we say form of questioning and it quickly became apparent that she was not interested in listening to any explanations to her queries. she did say that they were not saying that I had done anything intentionally to commit fraud but that I may have been"" inadvertently overpaid at some point"" A copy of my file was requested so I could go through it and ascertain what was missing. It took two weeks to get the copy. I started going through the file and it was very easy to see what was missing from the file. The majority of the notes were missing including all the notes from the whole year when I had been told to allow Joe to live in a caravan on my property for the safety of my daughter. All the notes that should have afforded me protection had been removed from my file. There was even a note saying that notes were missing from my file. I then did a report on the file pointing out the many discrepancies, there are things missing that I do not remember no doubt, but no one could fail to see the file is sadly incomplete. The file is worthless to me as a form of protection when it should have been all I needed and the investigation would never have taken place. I pointed out in my report on the file that the missing paperwork amounted to gross negligence on the part of winz. I said that they have an obligation to make sure that all records are true and complete In my comments at the end of the report I stated that it was my intention to ask an independent body to look at how the whole investigation had been conducted as I believed it was not within the law. This obviously upset jo Rankin and at that point,, if not earlier, the investigation stopped being about my entitlement or not and became a vendetta because I had dared to question her integrity and methods. During the second meeting I told her that I wanted to help get the investigation over as quickly as possible as I was trying to get my granddaughter who was in the care of cyps. I explained the difficulties she has and said I did not think I could handle the stress of her behaviours as well as the stress of an investigation at the same time.. Joe Rankin asked me if it was my granddaughter   ..   . daughter of         . I was very surprised that she knew their names as I had not mentioned them at all. I had previously been told that the investigator for feilding winz was a personal friend of my first husband and his wife.. I don''t know if this is where she got her information from but she certainly got it from somewhere. a few days after receiving my report jo Rankin rang the Hastings branch of cyps and said not to let me have my granddaughter as I was dishonest ,that I appeared to be living in a relationship with Joe and he is an alcoholic and suffers from depression. She also stated that we share a bank account which she knows to be untrue. If Jo Rankin had conducted a full investigation she would know it is not true that Joe lives in my house. In fact I am convinced that she knew all along that the accusations were baseless. the fact that she was prepared to take a chance on not being caught out and broke the law when she breached the privacy act and my rights to privacy under the law as a winz client, and was also prepared to lie as she knows full well that we do not share a bank account and only share those finances that winz insisted on because his name was on the deeds to the house as well as my own. Proves that this is a vendetta against me personally and not about my entitlement or not to a benefit. She had no right to give information about me to another agency that had nothing to do with the investigation. Under the law she cannot even tell other winz workers my business unless they are directly concerned with the investigation. Winz demand that we are honest and open about all aspects of our lives and tell the truth at all times. That we never knowingly break the law or commit fraud. There is no privacy given to us and they can cause you extreme embarrassment in your wider community, and give information about you to neighbours and any one else they wish too. There is no protection for us that I can see. Jo Rankin told me in front of the advocate that she had the power to do as she pleases and if it embarrasses me too bad The second she rang cyps she lost all credibility. She lied and she broke the law. She has vilified me and has tried to harm my family. How could any decent person knowingly try to stop the one person who loves and wants a child from taking that child in and giving it protection? Particularly when she is aware that no one else is prepared to have that child live with them because of her extreme behaviour. And all because I said I was going to have what appeared to be her illegal practices when conducting an investigation looked at by an independent body. That too is my right under the law. When it was bought to my attention, by Bessie handley of cyps, just what Jo Rankin had attempted to do, I realised that I had made an enemy who had a huge amount of power over my life. I knew as well that the likelihood of being her only victim was not likely. I felt I had to act to protect myself and others from this vindictive woman. I decided to contact Ruth dyson the minister of social welfare and ask her to dismiss Jo Rankin from winz service. I do not think it is right to allow someone who is corrupt to be allowed to continue her reign of terror. I have heard many stories about the winz office and not one of them has been complementary. The reason I gave for calling for her dismissal were that she had broken the law when contacting cyps and was conducting the investigation outside of the rules and laws for such an investigation A large part of the blame for her behaviour must remain with those in parliament we entrust with the responsibility to ensure the laws passed down by the high court, and by our government are followed by the departments concerned . Not only have they failed in that responsibility but have actively encouraged the investigators to continue with old practices and methods that have been outlawed by the high court. They are still encouraged to be prejudiced in favour of a negative outcome for the clients by being offered 10% of any monies that they can con terrified beneficiaries into agreeing to pay, to avoid being taken to court. Many mothers would agree to anything to ensure their liberty and ability to continue to care for their own children. You can''t do that from the jail cell they threaten to put you in if you insist on it going to court. Most people would see it as taking on the government itself and therefore unwinnable no matter how innocent they are, I know myself to be innocent of the charges aimed at me. I know I am safer in my home if I don''t run around the neighbourhood announcing that I am a women living alone with a beautiful and nubile daughter. I know that I should have the right to keep my financial position private as does the rest of society I know that the welfare system was bought into being to protect the sick and elderly in the community. I know it is turning into a department where dishonesty is rewarded. I know a performance index is just an indication of how often someone has gone hungry without a needed food grant. I know from personal experience that they remove previously granted special benefits from your benefit that were for medical of health needs without telling you. I know that they cannot be trusted to ever work in your best interests I know they will work it out so you do not have enough money to eat properly or be clothed decently I know that the majority of people I have spoken too feel disempowered and most have had disparaging remarks aimed at them by winz staff. I know that I am tired of being bullied by people I have mistakenly trusted And I know that this time I will stand up and fight for what I know is right and hold my government responsible for their own house cleaning. I have read the ruka decision I have read the privacy act for winz I have read reports of corruption and the methods used in that corruption I have read about the millionaires club. I have read about the performance index I have read how the bonus system works I know Jo Rankin will get 10% of any monies she can get me to sign as overpayments even knowing the debt is inaccurate I For people like me who are doing a little research to try to find some answers you quickly realise that you are walking through a minefield. That there are no clear answers. That the government does not want the welfare system to be run correctly as they do not want to pay the extra money honesty would cost. It is very difficult to find the answers you seek as most winz web sites will not let you into the privacy act policy. I could find no site that gave a clear explanation as to what you can claim for. Most people would give up looking. Information should be freely available. Your rights and what you can claim for should be information that is freely available. Winz workers should feel free to help you where and if they can as long as you are claiming an entitlement. Instead they are disadvantaged if they deal with you honestly and their annual performance bonus is affected. The result of this is that you are very rarely told of an entitlement you should claim. The onus to find your entitlements is on you. There should be somewhere to go where this information is clear. The staff should be obligated to tell you of any entitlement you should be claiming. Some things should never be questioned like a child''s right to eat. With the huge rises in costs for food power petrol and other basics beneficiaries are finding it harder every day to pay for the necessities of life. When an extra unavoidable expense has to be paid for, like an extra doctors visit or ten dollars extra petrol for a hospital appointment, that money has to come from somewhere. Normally for us it comes out of the food budget. It can''t be taken from the rent. It can''t be taken from the power bill. It can''t be taken from the phone bill if you have a life threatening condition. So therefore it must come from the grocery budget. If you have children you feed them first. If as in my case you must eat because you are on insulin you run the risk of becoming very ill. The elderly are disadvantaged by not being told that they can claim for lawn mowing and home help. Many are living in less than ideal conditions. Don''t you find it ironic that so much effort is made to catch any one claiming more than they are entitled too but not even one person in our area anyway goes out to the elderly to check that their living situation is safe and hygienic? No one checks to make sure they have the basics like bread and milk or heat, by the time many are found the conditions have usually deteriorated to an unsafe level There are four men in our town who are homeless. One man was recently made homeless because winz would not give him an accommodation allowance. His rent was 95 dollars per week and he was given 140 dollars a week. Nobody can pay for power food and heat and groceries on 45 dollars a week. They forced him into a homeless position. I wonder how that person that denied him his rights felt earlier this week when he was discovered drowned in a flooded ditch he had climbed into to try to get out of the rain. And it then flooded It is heartbreaking to listen to the stories of people who just cannot manage. I grow a good garden in the summer and have greens in the garden in the winter but many do not have anywhere they can grow a little food to help with the budget. My daughter and I need more iron and protein in our diet but we do not go hungry. Quality is often missing but luckily a diabetic diet is quite simple anyway. our doctor has placed my daughter on iron pills which help address her lack of that element. I have this week given my advocate my written permission to act on my behalf and he is quietly confident that it will only be a matter of days until all aspects of my case are sorted. I can only hope and pray that the people he now deals with are more interested in protecting my rights than they are in covering up the appalling performance of the winz staff. the very best of luck to those of you who are finding yourselves in a similar situation. I hope this helps or at least lets you know that you are not alone out there. GET YOURSELVES AN ADVOCATE THAT KNOWS THE LAW THEY ARE FREE AND WILL ACT IN YOUR BEST INTERESTS. My answer Well done. Lets hope something sensible happens. With the election due it might pay for Ruth Dyson to use her brain. But I'll bet her ego will get in the way.