Social Welfare and Debt the Left hand of Capitalist Oppression.
The social welfare of today would be unrecognisable to those
who witnessed the birth of what was known as the cradle to the grave. Sadly I
was barely out of the cradle when the social welfare of old was consigned to
the grave. In its place a welfare system that barely satisfies the loosest
definition of the word. A welfare system that’s acts as a brutal tool of
capitalist oppression rendering its very existence a contradiction of
principle. Today work and Income works to perpetuate poverty encourage debt and
intimidate the unemployed in to unsuitable employment.
Debt is a curse on the proletariat yet even work and income
is in the business of putting low paid workers and the unemployed in to debt a
situation that has become necessary as these people can no longer afford basic
living costs that WINZ should be covering but for some reason is unable to. In
recent years rent has spiralled beyond what the basic benefit can cover. This
is compounded by the WINZ department’s unwillingness to provide any more than
the bare minimum of support unless prompted to do so. For many the only course
of action left is credit leaving them in debt that they will struggle to cover.
When at last you manage to get proper help from WINZ you
find yourself with a very limited range of options. The first is temporary
additional support this has to be reapplied for every three months and unless
you happen to be in debt WINZ will not pay any significant amount. The second is an advance on the benefit a
sort of interest free loan that can be provided for things like bond and
temporary accommodation. In recent years this has resulted in people owing
thousands of dollars to WINZ without having received any meaningful support.
A welfare system that is centred on debt is by definition
rotten to the core. Instead of helping the poor and unemployed it serves to
perpetuate poverty while providing only token support. Debt is a burden that is
best avoided yet our modern welfare system is unable to offer any alternatives.
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