A discursive resource that explains the welfare system as one that is “enabling” was drawn on at various times through the interviews. When drawing on this discourse the poor are construed as being looked after by the welfare system here in New Zealand provided they manage their money carefully:
I mean for the faults we have got, we have free education, free hospital care, pretty cheap medical care if you are on a community services card. And generally I think benefits are adequate to live on but you have to figure out how to live on those benefits and not just automatically do the stuff that television and the rest of society presses you to do.
I think that you do get extremely rich people and you get the average ones. I think that because of the beneficiary system people are getting a certain level of money which if well budgeted would work for each family.
Work and Income New Zealand (WINZ) is construed here as an organisation that is available to help and enable a person to move on with their lives. Here the argument is that the emphasis behind WINZ practices is on providing opportunities that prompt and help people to move into the workforce because working will improve their self-esteem and make them feel better:
But there is a lot of opportunities in New Zealand for people to help and improve themselves and if they are on a benefit or a low income there is funding available through WINZ that people can go for and do the courses and learn new skills and some of them even help you with finding a job afterwards.
I know WINZ offer courses that you can go to. They run them down here every Monday and you can go to it and they give you tips for how to do your CV and how to present yourself and how to apply for jobs and things like that and I think if you are going to be getting the dole or a
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DPB or any of those main income benefits that you should do something like that. Unless you are on a disability benefit or a sickness. Because a
lot of people are long term disabled and can’t work. But anyone that can
should be doing something to help themselves not just for the money point of it but for their own self-esteem and wanting to feel better about themselves and what they do.
Drawing on a discourse that explained the welfare system as enabling also had the effect of positioning those on welfare benefits as resourceful, self-reliant and resilient as able to make the most of their circumstances. Thus beneficiaries are able to use the system to get out of or avoid poverty, and learning how to “work the system” is actually a necessity:
… I have stood in Welfare lines and had discussions with people and they
have said to me “oh you know, come on work the system” and I said,
“What’s the system?” and they think that you are totally mad because you don’t know. They think “Come on girl if you know if you do such and such you will get a benefit for such and such” you know. And it is sort of
like; well why are we not told this stuff at the beginning, truth be told, and then they wonder why people lie and cheat. I mean it is great fun. You learn how to work the system and that. My very nature is sort of
like, well how do I ask for something if I don’t know it’s there?
Although “working the system” can often involve some level of dishonesty, it can be argued that this is justified. It is not possible to understand what being on a welfare benefit is like until you have been in that situation. If a person remains on a benefit for any length of time they need to take advantage of all the opportunities available to them to acquire income:
It is only long term people that have learnt how to survive, yeah. You have actually got to change your whole mind-set when you go onto a low income. And you actually can survive if you are really careful but I think
it is pretty hard if you haven’t got a second income. You need some sort
of money coming in. It makes a huge difference when you have got money coming in, especially if it is money that you don’t have to worry too much
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about paying tax on. I think most people…. I remember years ago a solo
mother that we used to know and I was outraged that she was a solo mother and she was working in the hospital and getting the benefit as well. I thought that was terrible until I lived on a benefit and then I understood.
Unfortunately a welfare system construed as “enabling” also allows for positioning some beneficiaries as able to make a “lifestyle” out of “working the system”. A person can appear to be better off drawing a benefit than they would be if they were employed:
…The benefits. You know I have seen people, they know all the loopholes of the system. They get assistance, although they have a little tiny sickness but they get all the things that they can get. And then here is the poor family just managing to feed their children. And they are working and struggling. And I see abuse, (of the system) I have to be thing on this because a lot of them are my people; you know Maori, or New Zealand born Kiwis, because they know the system. I am naïve on a lot of things – I am. If you get a good case worker they will tell you what you are
allowed…
However, a person could resist positioning themselves as “abusing” the system and talk about using or “working” the system to empower themselves to move through a difficult set of circumstances. A sense of resilience and self-determination comes through strongly in this quote:
I mean I always felt, that in my own experiences when I was struggling, I always knew that I was fortunate enough because I had lots of resources to call on. I had supportive family, supportive friends and I could work the system, you know I could stand up for myself and even though I hated it, hated every minute of it, I could stand up for myself…
So, although there is a significant propensity for a lack of hope amongst beneficiaries it can be argued that the welfare system can be used to foster a sense of resourcefulness and
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capability. Therefore a welfare benefit can be construed as a resource that reflects the community support:
And I sort of see that intergenerational welfare dependency myself amongst people that I have known when I was living in Otara and well I have been a beneficiary for twenty eight years so I have had a lot to do with other beneficiaries. And it is a trap to be in but I also think that you can look on it as the community supporting me and I want to also take part in the community by doing voluntary work for the People Centre and Youth Line and City Mission.
Thus an individual on a welfare benefit can draw on a discourse of an enabling welfare system to position themselves as maintaining a resourceful and sustainable lifestyle on a welfare benefit. Here they can frame their life in relation to those who have access to more money in a way that promotes a sense of wellbeing. The self-governing practices needed for life as a long-term beneficiary are well articulated in the following quote:
Sheryl So imagine a person living on a really low income, what do they
have to do to get by?
Participant Shop wisely. I shop in the car about once every three weeks
and get a sack of potatoes, and sack of onions and big stuff. Otherwise I walk to Foodtown and back, which is about a twelve-minute walk, and carry stuff back. I do that about three times a week with the dog so I get exercise. I am probably really fortunate in that I can walk to the supermarket, the library, just about anywhere. Everything I buy is what is on special and we more or less eat what is on special. So what to people need to do? They need to pay their rent or mortgage first, pay their power bills and phone bills next, they need to know about turning off things. Those little things add up to make you manage your money well. Hardly any food in our house gets wasted. So what do people have to do? They have to be like me (laughs). They have to not feel as though they are missing out on something. They have to feel happy that they are living in a community that gives them enough to survive on. You can look on
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getting a benefit not as a bad thing but as a good thing that your community is supporting you. Get to, and make use of it. That’s all.