Kahui welfare

the Kahui whanau are not poor. I have some calculations on how much they are getting. Chris and Cru's parents were getting nearly $600 every week. That's a conservative estimate,and it's net income, not gross.

Chris and Cru's parents were getting a weekly benefit ($289.84) and weekly family support for four children ($190.00 approx). Now that the children have died they would have been entitled to three funeral grants ($4587.74).

As the couple appear to know their entitlements, they will be aware that they can get up to $300.00 worth of food grants and $1200.00 worth of advances for things such as power bills and rent each year. They may have applied for a special benefit as well.

Also living in the house were eight other adults, seven of whom were on benefits. Two were a couple with a child. Their combined benefits would be well over $1200.00 per week, and they would also be entitled to the advances and extras, should they be needed. And we still have to include income of the working adult whose name was no doubt not on the power bill account or rental agreement.

There are not too many unemployed families who live in a three bedroomed house that get an average of nearly $3,000 NET income from the state every single week, with the advances and extras on top.

And that's not including legal aid, special benefits, funeral grants, advances or other grants. The residents of this three bedroom home, if they milked the system, could be getting up to $4500 a week.

update It seems that the NZ Herald has got a story idea off this blog, and had more time to investigate it than moi. However they could have added in the funeral grants as well....