BAS Newsletter: June 2017

BAS Update

Kia Ora, we are still open every weekday from 9:30am to 2/2:30pm.  We do our best to help everyone who comes to us.  Please let us know how we did; we have a survey monkey link we can send to our clients to  report back about our service.  Taking a few minutes to fill in this survey helps give us results for our funding applications, so we appreciate your time ☺

We recently had a wee article about our service in the Christchurch mail, written by Anna Price.  Did you see this?  Let us know what you think.

In this newsletter we summarise the types of benefits and grants available.  Please call us for more information if you want advice on whether you will be eligible for a certain type of assistance.  We soon plan to have some facts and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on our website and the first installment is likely to be more information on Grants Available.

We also outline important information about the Supported Living Payment (previously Invalids Benefit) and let you know about the change of Areas for Accommodation Supplement.

We are having a wee Friends of BAS drive—do you want to help us in our work?

We highlight the work of a fellow community group this newsletter with TPA.

Elections are coming up, please ensure you are enrolled to vote and think about what you want from a political party (more info on different parties in our next newsletter).

Grants & Benefits Available

The main question we are asked when people call us is “are we getting all our entitlements?” (sometimes called FACE: Full And Correct Entitlements).

So first we check the main benefit people are on.  If you have no or little other income, you may be entitled to a benefit.  The main ones are Superannuation, Job Seeker Support (and Job Seeker Sickness), Sole Parent Support and Supported Living Payment (for your own medical conditions or if caring for someone who would otherwise be in care).

Remember if you earn any money, this has to be declared weekly by Friday to avoid an overpayment.

Accommodation Supplement can be paid to help with accommodation costs like board, rent or mortgage (+rates, house insurance & maintenance costs).

Disability Allowance is paid for ongoing medical costs (like doctors and prescriptions and sometimes things like special foods) verified by your doctor for you and/or your children.

A separate allowance with a similar name, Child Disability Allowance, is not based on costs or income, but is paid to parents of children who “require extra care and attention.”

Temporary Additional Support may be available for people with high medical, accommodation or other essential costs.  This is calculated on a formula with no discretion so may still not help enough to cover all your unavoidable costs!

Special Needs Grants (SNG) and Advances may be available to cover one-off important costs like Dental Work, Medical costs, menstrual products, bond & rent advance, school uniforms, car repairs etc.  Work and Income can’t repay you if you have already paid this cost, so if you have an urgent need, talk to them first.  The Advance Category Guideline Limits can be found here: https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/deskfile/extra-help-information/advance-payment-of-benefit-tables/category-guideline-limits-current.html

Food Grants are, of course, the most popular type of SNG.  The initial application can now be made via myMSD if you have a payment card.  However, if you have already had a couple of grants in the last year, are over the guideline limit or have special circumstances, you will likely have to go in for an emergency appointment to sort out this pressing matter.

Lists of guideline essential and emergency needs and other information can be found here: https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/legislation/welfare-programmes/special-needs-grants-programme/ including special circumstances like Emergency Housing, Resettlement Grants, Driver Licences etc.

Please feel free to let us know

 * if your casemanager or office are good or bad

* whether you have been turned away by security 

* Whether you have been involved in a lockdown situation at Work & Income

Friends of BAS & Donations

We appreciate the support we receive from our clients and community.  We have had the support of many volunteers over the years freely giving their time to help our BAS (Beneficiary Advisory Service) in many different ways from advocacy, to office systems, admin work & data entry, to delivering of newsletters and flyers etc.  We have also been supported by ongoing or one-off donations to our service.  BAS is the project of the Christchurch Peoples Resource Centre (CPRC), which is a Charitable Trust so all donations are tax deductible (this means you can claim one third of the money donated back from the Government up to a certain limit).

If you are keen to become a “Friend of BAS” (Member) for (suggested donation) $5/year unwaged, $10 waged and $20 for groups, you will receive four newsletters/year and the opportunity to attend our AGM.  This will also help us in our work as we require constant funding to stay open.

If you want to help BAS, but do not want to donate money or volunteer in the office, we are keen to have some stock photos of clients (this doesn’t have to be your face) to use for reporting purposes, to have personal stories to use in our newsletters and to have a pool of clients we can contact if the media want to speak directly to someone affected by a proposed change in legislation etc.  We would never, of course, give out your details without your permission.  Alternatively, if you want to help more than just filling our a survey monkey form, you could write a reference on how BAS has helped you in your case as these can help with our funding applications.  Thank you for your continued support.

 

Remember to apply if you think you might be eligible for any benefit, and review any decision you don’t agree with.

We are keen to hear from you if your benefit has been   sanctioned, you have been put on a 13-week standdown or been declined Supported Living Benefit. 

We can  usually help you with these issues! 

Contact us for help or for more information.

 

Supported Living Payment

If you have been on a sickness benefit for a while, you can ask your doctor if you would be eligible for Supported Living Payment.  There are two main criteria for this benefit, so it isn’t guaranteed.  To be eligible, you must be both permanently and severely restricted in your capacity for work because of a health condition, injury or disability OR caring for a person who requires full-time care and attention.  If you have applied for this benefit but been declined, you can appeal this decision if you think it is incorrect.  Unfortunately it is very common for these applications to be declined, even when your own doctor has stated you are eligible.  If you decide to appeal the decision, you will have a much higher chance of  success if you have an advocate with you.  It is also helpful to have medical evidence to support your case.  Remember, no one else lives your life, so your testimony on what you can and can’t do or how much you have to care for another person is crucial evidence in a Hearing, so ensure you attend.

We would like to know

How are you finding myMSD?  If you are having problems, please let us know the specifics of what is wrong (preferably by email), and we may then be able to resolve these issues.  This system is being continually worked on by MSD.  Are you being told you have to apply for benefits online?  This is not true.  They would prefer that, but paper applications can still be taken.

Change of Areas

The maximum amount available weekly for Accommodation Supplement (ASup) are based on where you live.  The classification of these areas has recently changed so that Christchurch and many surrounding areas have now been upgraded to Area 2.  Here is the link to the ASup maximums on the Work and Income Manuals and Procedures (MAP) page: https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/deskfile/extra-help-information/temporary-additional-support-tables/accommodation-supplement-maximum-rates-current.html (click on Area 2 to see if your area is now included here).  This will affect people in the Canterbury area  who were paying high rent costs and receiving the maximum amount of ASup already.  This should have already been adjusted for you.

Issues & Awareness of homelessness are increasing around the country, especially in areas like Christchurch.  We can’t help everyone, but if you are residentially challenged due to a benefit problem, we at BAS may be able to help sort that out!

If you need help with the assessment process for Social Housing, TPA may be able to help.

TPA: Tenants Protection Agency

TPA and BAS have been able to work more closely together since BAS moved into CCH.  TPA can be contacted on 379 2297 and their website is: www.tpa.org.nz

When clients have issues (big or small) in their current tenancies, TPA can talk people through their choices, advising people of their rights and options to remedy the issue so that people can make an informed decision.  For example, TPA may tell a client they have the option to send their landlord a letter, giving them 14 days to fix a  problem with the property.  Or that Social Housing clients have the same rights and paths open to them as people in private rentals.

Whilst TPA don’t source emergency housing for clients, they can help people with the assessment process.

They may also be able to support clients at tenancy services mediation or tribunal.

Rent arrears is a big problem for people on low incomes as this mounts up very quickly, so their advice is always to pay the rent first.  TPA can help clients work through this if it becomes a problem and provide support, including with Work and Income.  However, becoming up to three weeks behind in rent payments often ends up with the client being evicted, so avoiding this is very important!  Whilst some landlords will accept the client paying the arrears off over time, others will not and the case could go to tribunal.

Knowing they have an option makes a difference for many clients, so the problems and processes don’t seem quite so difficult.

TPA are funded for dealing in clients in the Canterbury area.

 

BAS is grateful for the assistance of

• Lottery Grants Board
• The Rātā Foundation
• United Way
• Community Organised Grants Scheme
• Christchurch City Council
• The Trusts Community Foundation
• Lion Foundation
• Mainland Foundation
• Pub Charity
• First Sovereign Trust Limited
• Thank You Charitable Trust
• Donations from Community
• Our Volunteers and Staff

If you need our help, BAS is keen to hear from you.  Just give us a ring, email, or pop in for a visit.

  ♥ Kia Kaha ♥

If you want information on any issues raised in this newsletter or any matter relating to benefits or poverty, please feel free to call us ☺  If there are other issues you want to see in these newsletters, please let us know.

To Contact BAS:

Office and Postal Address:

Christchurch Community House

301 Tuam St, Christchurch  Central 8011

Phone:       03 379 8787

Email:        bas.cprc@gmail.com

Website:    bas.org.nz

Facebook: Beneficiary Advisory Service (BAS)

Office Hours:

9.30 am—2.30 pm Monday to Thursday

9:30am—2pm Friday