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A Canterbury man who cannot find a job or access a benefit says he is part of a growing group of New Zealanders whose unemployment is hidden from official figures.
Mark, who lives with his wife, has been working and paying his taxes since he was 15 years old.
But last October, he was fired from his job as a school caregiver and has been looking for a job ever since.
“Between closing and being 63 this year, it has proven to be a mission really.”
Her redundancy payment ran out in late January, and with no job in sight, she turned to the Ministry of Social Development to see what help she could get.
But because Mark’s wife is still employed, he can’t get the job seeker benefit, even though his finances are completely separate.
He said he was putting great pressure on their relationship, and is not optimistic about the future.
“There are many things: he is working from home, he is stuck at home, he has no job, he has no future. It is useless. You cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, there is simply nothing there.”
Mark expected the situation to worsen over time, as his wife will have to find the money to cover all the bills for the house, without him paying to support her.
“I just don’t think it’s fair, when we both pay taxes our whole lives, and we have supported many other people in the community, and when it comes to the crisis there is absolutely nothing there.”
Mark said he had been shocked to see the realities of the New Zealand welfare system and had struggled to access his retirement, which had made things even more difficult.
ActionStation social justice group has been contacted by hundreds of people in a similar situation to Mark.
Activist Ruby Powell said the loss of Covid-related jobs meant that thousands of people were quickly realizing how hard New Zealand’s welfare system is.
She said they were struggling to get support and when they did they were surprised to see how little they received from the benefit, with a single childless person receiving $ 210 per week.
Last year, the government’s own welfare expert advisory group recommended changing the relationship rules for accessing benefits.
Attorney Dr. Huhana Hickey was a member of the group and said the rules were leading people to poverty and that benefits should be paid to people regardless of marital status.
“It doesn’t mean that the person who wins is able to meet the cost needs of both people, it means that they are simply ignoring a great need in one area, and relationships have been one of the biggest barriers (to access the benefit) for many people. “
She said the problem was especially bad for the elderly or disabled.
“Because people don’t employ 60-year-olds, they don’t employ 50-year-olds, these days they don’t even want to employ people over 45, so these people have to live off their partner or have to find something else. And sometimes they can’t do that. “
About 40,000 people have benefited since February, but Mark said that was not the whole picture.
“When the government goes to television every day and they cite unemployment figures and all that, that is not the true figure that is happening in the country: people like me, and there must be others in my situation, are not counting.”
“We are a lot of people hiding, we just don’t know what to do. There is absolutely no help for us,” he said.
