So Mum and I just went to WINZ to see if we could get any help for the funeral bill. Huh, what a joke. I take nothing away from the lady who helped us, I think she genuinly wanted to do something. But.........Yup....you guessed it, we're entiltled to diddly squat. What utter crap. As you can guess I'm peeved (to put it mildly). We did everything right in preparing for our little girl, not only physically but financially as well. We bought a house, paid off our credit card debt, saved a wee bit (ok, it wasn't alot, but we gave it a good kiwi go), waited till any baby stuff we needed was on sale and so on.....and then the shit hit the preverbial fan and the rest is history. So based on the one salary we now get we are entilted to a big fat 0 on all possible benefits or grants, some by only $20, they don't even take into accont basic living expenses like mortgage, power, and stuff like that, you know, those unavoidable bills. So, I'm sitting here thinking theres people out there sitting on the benefit that have never tried a day in their life (I do realise theres alot that do, this is totally not aimed at the people who genuinly need it) and they are entitled to more then us. We have worked our butts off to make sure we were stable enough to start a family, and things turn bad, so we ask for help ONCE in our life from the government, and it's not even alot but we're outright denied. Theres people in prison who get a better deal than this, it's no wonder people turn to bludging and crime, your damned if you do and your damned if you don't. We try to do everything by the big rule book of life, and what do we get, a big fat kick in the pants. It's like the universe is saying 'ha ha, keep trying fools'. So the lady at WINZ says to me we may be entilted to an accomidation benefit, whoopdidooo, it's but a mere drop in the bucket and I'd still need to work which would mean we lose the benefit anyway, catch 22, so then she says to me 'your not going to be able to work for a while', yeah right, what choice do I have, if I want to have any security for our next bub and not have to be scraping the bottom of the barrel, I simply have to work, cause it looks like Lotto ain't ever gonna happen.
Anyway, if you've hung in this long and read my ramblings, you deserve a medal, thanks for reading.

Manda

I soo feel for you we were in the same boat last year and man it hurt because all we needed was the bill sitting there as a reminder of what we had just been through. We were fortunate enuff that 2 of Simons Uncles decided they wanted to help out and they paid $500 towards it, but we paid the rest off.

Big (((HUGS)))

Oh Manda, what an ordeal.

I feel the same way, and we are probably in the same boat as you. Husband earns too much, and now that we have two profitable businesses, we are entitled to nothing for as long as both shall live. Do people not think that you live to your means, like if you have say $70,000 income, you live to that, and anything else you want has to wait.

Manda, I'm so sorry you didn't get any help from WINZ, and unfortunately will never be anything that will change. People like to bludge off the govt which means people like you who need it get nothing. So very unfair.

Am thinking of you, if you need to chat, just text me, will PM you my mobile number

HUGS Hun

Hey Manda,
I just wanted to send some (((hugs))) your way.

Take care
Jacqui

All I can say is "This really sucks", good people like yourselves who have always worked, get put on the backburner, This government has a lot to answer for. They should treat each case differently. Surely something like this, is not something we planned to happen. We didn't even know about a funeral grant when Ashley died, luckily my mother paid the bill.

big (((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Manda


Ally