A Recollection by Laura Shepard
I have just recently started my 4th and final year of my fine arts degree after taking a year off with Tao. On our year off (2010) we went to Taiwan - where women are still fighting for basic rights - I didn't really fit in and neither did Tao so we left - broke and in debt.
We arrived in New Plymouth to re-evaluate, re-establish and recover. I got a job at a bakery that was run by psychopaths and Tao couldn't find any work that suited him so applied for the Unemployment Benefit. Tao had been on the benefit before we left for Taiwan and at that time had been on it for a while. He knew the criteria for De-Facto and thus knew he had to declare our partnership or he'd feel stressed about hiding that. Turns out that instinct was a good one despite everyone telling us we made the wrong decision.
So then we discovered that because we were partners we were expected to support each other financially as well. Up until that point Tao and I had kept our finances separate so this was a bit crazy for us, but we had to roll with it. What this financial support means to WINZ is that they take the amount that Tao is entitled to, and then subtract 70c to the dollar from that for every dollar I earnt over $80. This is what happens when you're on the student allowance but to yourself not to someone separate.
What this meant was that we got beggar all from WINZ once we subtracted my minimum wage job from his benefit. I believe it was just over $100 a week. That was for Tao and then I received $400 a week from my job. Our rent was $300, food cost us $110, debt repayments cost us $40 and bills cost us $50 a week. So once we'd paid all of that there was nothing to spare. However we were okay with this in a strange way because at least we could stabilise.
Then I got a letter from our friends at IRD. They explained to me that I was using the wrong tax code (MSL) and I should be using SSL. I was confused because SSL was Secondary tax Student Loan and my pay packet was much bigger than our benefit payment, and I always thought that the larger pay was considered 'Primary income'. Well that's how it works for people with two jobs, but benefits are different - no matter how much you earn from your benefit even if its only $30 a week it is considered 'Primary Income', and anything else is secondary. This injustice meant that I was now taxed an arm and a leg. Because not only does your tax go up, your student loan repayments triple in size. So now I was getting $330 a week. This meant that we had to change our diet to porridge and stir fry broccoli in order to survive off $40 a week for food.
Then the psychopaths that I worked for finally exploded, declared bankruptcy, didn't pay me my last pay packet or my holiday pay and split for another city. So Because I was already on the benefit I just called them up and informed them that I had lost my job and so I was entitled to the full amount. Turns out, that was shit all - $400 a week in total. So once we subtract rent ($300) then bills ($50) then debt ($40) we had $10 a week for food. If we had been technically separate entities not in a relationship we should have received around $270 each a week which would have meant food. Why do winz punish those in relationships? This is what we started to think about and this was the exact time that Tao was working full time planning his show 'The Beneficiaries office' as a part of his new PR company 'The Wells Group'. Tao had been working on this show for a long time and it was ironic that the pay for the show should come at a time when we were hard out broke. I now had the freedom to help him with the show in combination with the frustration I was feeling about WINZ it was the perfect time to speak about welfare.
Tao received a lot of publicity about the show as soon as the show started; in fact the paper printed its first controversial article the day of the opening and by that night WINZ had called Tao to let him know that his benefit had been suspended. I received no such phone call but apparently mine had been too. This was to set the tone for how I was treated by WINZ, I was not informed of anything - I had to learn about these injustices through Tao and I was not invited to any meetings. Turns out this was how the newspaper wanted it too - when Tao and I did a Labour day parade to fight for job satisfaction we did a press release to the Dominion stating both of our names, but they printed it "Tao Wells and Friend".
Once the show was over and we both had had our benefits re-instated we both headed back to New Plymouth, to do two things - To pack up our house as we could no longer afford it and attend WINZ meetings which had been scheduled for us.
Turns out for the first time they wanted me to attend these meetings even though I had up until now been ignored as a de-facto female afterthought. These meetings were actually group meetings as part of the new 'work-testing' programme. These meetings were supposed to scare us into action. People who are being work tested have to attend these once a week - Tao and I had to go in every day - Tao was being work tested, I however was not. This form of psychological terror that they pounded on to us was nothing in comparison to the media; this was torture complete with video cameras and security guards. We had to watch everything we said as it could have easily been used against us. Tao spent most of the meetings trying to create an uprising from the others who were just as aware of the wrongness of this treatment. Every day the programme leader would ask us what we had done to look for work since the last time she saw us and we would have to always have a new answer. I would spend most of my time outside of the meetings trying to think of answers for them rather than looking for work.
Finally we got away to Wellington to be assigned a single person in the Willis Street office, Wellington treated us differently than New Plymouth because in Wellington there is a Benefit Rights Advocacy Office and Kay Brereton who works there would attend these meetings with us. This meant that we were sitting alongside someone who could mediate everything we said and so we weren't as terrified of saying the wrong thing. The woman in charge of us was very flighty and she eventually went on leave to give us to another more stable person. The two people in new Plymouth in charge of us also went on leave while looking after us.
Then I found a job - the first job I could find and because of WINZ debt repayments we were not entitled to any benefit for Tao. So I was and still am the main provider. This works out okay now as our house is cheaper here in Wellington. Now that I'm studying again a lot of the tutors recognise me more in the corridor as being Taos partner rather than as just myself. I'm okay with that but have to keep Lee Krasner in mind. When I was at high school for the end of year magazine the students did predictions of who we were going to be. My boyfriend at the time was predicted to be the next Jackson Pollock and I was predicted to be the next Lee Krasner. When my teacher saw that he was outraged saying that I was the next Pollock. Thanks to WINZ I feel more like Krasner but slowly I'm gaining my own momentum again and aim to execute my teachers prophesy.
end.
An interview with Tao Wells on the DPAG Late Breakfast on Radio One, 91fm may be downloaded HERE.
A brief ODT review of the show can be found HERE
