We're all aware beneficiaries receiving >$1000/week and grants for swimming pools is unacceptable.. But it only highlights that Paula Bennett is mismanaging her portfolio, not that we need a swing to the Brash-era right..

The solution= Use the people who are on the unemployment benefit who are able to work to build new zealand a proper 4 lane motor way and another hydro dam in the south island to fix our energy short comings! In return they shall receive pay at the minimum wage and free accommodation while working for the country!

What this government should realise is the following: the majority of the people on the dole NOW are not on there out of choice. You'll always have the law breakers (the Harris family et al). But I fail to see why anyone should have to front up to complete idiots who don't know their own job half the time. I'm now self-employed again - mainly because I was sick of being asked questions such as "Sorry, is a BA a Tertiary degree, should I put that down?" and gems like "I'm not sure if we actually take CVs at this office actually, I'd better check with my supervisor...". Oh, and I can't forget the time I was in line with 9 other people, only to hear a WINZ staff member say "Hey, just off to the pub - anyone want to join me, nobody I need to see anymore". And how about the welcoming "Yes but why are you here though?" when I asked to see their job boards one time. I seriously question the aptitude of some Case "Managers". Let's be honest, being on the dole is NOT a lifestyle choice for 99% of people, despite what some of the clearly self-rightous people think here. I'd have rather been able to pay for my Loan with a job, which I had until my ex-manager decided he could pay less to someone else for twice the output basically. All I "got" out of the dole was another 5 year stretch of being a bad creditor. Even the CEO of Veda Advantage has come out and said credit agencies ought to be careful as to how people have ended up on their lists.

why the hell cant winz help me! They give some people $1000 per week but they wont give me an interest free loan of $2,400 so that i can get a root canal.

What do i have to do be an agro person so as i can get what i NEED. I AM ACTUALLY WILLING TO PAY THE MONEY BACK!

The whole idea that they get GRANTS for tyres and fences around the pool make me sick and angry and i just hope i dont loose my tooth before i can firgure away to ge the money as the dentist refuses to let me pay the work off.

About time

The thing is, you actually do have to reapply for the dole regularly these days. Last time I became unemployed, I was aghast to find I had to reapply after several weeks and would have been put on some kind of jobseeking course had I not secured work. It seems to be more about making the numbers look good than actually helping people.

You can't throw people off benefits when they need it. Unless of course you want to make the country even more like America, where people die sans health insurance and drive to Mexico to get dodgy medications because they can't afford their prescriptions. I am happy to pay taxes to the welfare system. I've benefited from it with cheap doctors' visits, subsidised medications, lower-cost education and the dole when I've been out of work - others should too.

The great irony about the Harris family is that these people have shown remarkable entrepreneurial nous. I've been on the dole lots of times in my life and never managed to work it so well. It's true what they say - criminals and entrepreneurs are very similar creatures.

How long was Ms Bennett on a benefit again? Why does she think making everyone reapply every year will make any difference to behaviour? I suppose it will create a lot of paper work and appointments at the WINZ office - maybe they need to make work to keep themselves employed these days!

Why don,t you put up an opinion section about Helen Clark receiving the countries highest honour when she so stongly wanted to get rid of them??????HUH. HUH???

What a good idea, let's take people who are generally already disadvantaged and make their lives even more difficult. Let's stop their only source of income after a year and then let there be a hiatus until it starts again and all the while let us avoid asking what they will live on and how they will pay for little things like food and accommodation.

After all they are only on the benefit because they are lazy aren't they? As for MS Bennett how would she have coped as a beneficiary if they had stopped her benefit after a year? Oh and as regards the Harris family, I thought these kinds of details were confidential? Or is the Social Ministry Minister not able to be in breach of the privacy act these days?

People on the U/E Benefit should automatically have their case reviewed after 1 year without having to reapply and I am surprised that isn't the proceedure now. Perhaps the Minister and some staff at WINZ should have to reapply for their jobs for failing to stop people becoming long-term unemployed. The Harris family have been rorting the system and an enquiry should have been held years ago. Similarly the 1000 who are very long-term unemployed should have to prove why they have been unable to get any job. But there are many others for whom U/E benefit is simply the means which keeps their heads above water in a situation which is usually not of their own making. That they can survive on the benefit shows good budgeting and is not something I begrudge any genuine job seeker.