I boil with fury at the immense durress and stress I was forced to suffer at the hands of this inglorious self righteous, self important Dickensian "Ministry" of supposed "Social Development", who have the arrogance to pass down lofty financial judgements as to "who shall live and who should die". The policies are in default of the International Covenant of Human Rights. Policymakers and politicians are not even worthy of contempt. While they penalise the hard worker, the CEO of the so called Ministry of "Social Development" (Demolishement, I call it) sucks up $560,000 of the taxpayers money. Well, he is a Govt man, looking after his pocket. You have the opportunity to take a stand and do something about it. Go to msd-winz-billboardprotest.webs.com (there's no www")where you can tell your story anonymously. And, please register to protest on the site, because change can't be achieved without your input.

Having just read input from others re WINZ above, I feel I am qualified to make a comment now. This week I have applied for a widow's benefit and was amazed and delighted to be told the Invalid benefit my husband was on before his death (he died at Easter) would continue for another 8 weeks. This amazed me but also made me realise the Govt ain't all bad when dealing with folk such as myself who is newly widowed. There is enough stress having to go through all the paperwork needed to even apply so to get such good news was wonderful. The young lady who dealt with me almost got a big hug - guess that is why they sit behind such a big desk.
She also advised to apply for everything I could as there are times when you are entitled to more than you are told. Time will tell on this one.... but it has left me feeling more upnbeat than before I walked through those WINZ doors.
Threadz

Hi Threadz,
First of all, I am sorry to hear of your loss, I and a few others on here know what you are going through.
When I applied for a widows benefit 7 years ago, WINZ could not have been more understanding or helpful and I felt supported and encouraged by this.

Hope you are coping ok, take care of yourself.

CB

Thanks CB. I am coping, my daughter is dealing with a lot of things for me and that sure helps. Spent most of the weekend sorting through her father's papers - a few amusing memories came to light doing this. Guess this is what it is all about - helps to make his going easier when we can have a laugh.
Death Certificate has arrived too so that will speed things up with all the places it has to be produced for varioius reasons. You will all have been through this so know what I am talking about.
Had 9 year old grandson phone me yesterday asking if he could have Grandad's leather apron and hammer so he could help his Dad with fencing. Cute....
Threadz

Yes Threadz, that is cute.Your grandson sounds delightful.
A basic thing is to remember about WINZ is to follow things up. You sometimes getting a letter from them sounding as if it means one thing when it actually means something else entirely.So when you get a letter from them, don't stress about it, just ring them up and tell them what the letter said. Nine times out of ten it will be easily dealt with. The number of times the form which they tell me I have not handed in has simply been misplaced!Ring them. They will check for you and ring back- I have known them to ring back within the hour and admit their mistake telling me not to worry about it.
If, like me, you have a dreadful memory, when this has been done, write in large letters 'DONE' or 'ACTION TAKEN' and something along the lines of 'DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THIS' on to the offending letter.

Hi Gigglebyte - thanks for your input. Several months down the track I must say WINZ have come to the party and have had no hassles. One year to go and I am eligible for superannuation so that will up my 'income' a little and make things easier financially.
As you said, write things down and on important papers I do mark them as done with the date it has happened - pays off for sure.