Is the Muliaga family part of the underclass?

Garth Goorge in todays Herald reveled that the six-member Mulianga family was getting $470 a week in income of which $300.00 was paid weekly in rent. Well, they are a family of five now, but assuming that three of the four children were under 13, and the family works 30 hours a week they would have been entitled to weekly WFF payments of $341.00 and at least $145.00 a week of accommodation supplement. That's without taking into account any rates and assuming they don't own their own home and don't live in a Housing NZ place.

That extra assistance doubles their earned income prior to the death. But it doesn't take into consideration any disability allowance they would have been entitled to from WINZ. Nor does it take into account any TAS (special benefit) or any food grants and power advances, school uniforms, dental assistance etc they can apply for, likewise any tax credits they could claim for donating to their church.If Helen Clark is such good mates with the family now, I assume she has found out whether they got this assistance. If they weren't getting their entitlements, no wonder they couldn't repeatedly pay the power bill.

UPDATE
Have just found out that two of the four children are students, with one child under 13. The family own their own home, but not sure of the rates or insurance payments. So not sure why Garth George said they were paying rent. Adding rates and insurance to their $300 mortgage may increase the accommodation supplement slightly, WFF for the two children will be about $200 if Mr Muilanga works 30 hours a week.

Assuming their mortgage is $300 a week, I still can't do a calculation as I don't know how much their rates or house insurance is. The`ll still get over $300 a week, - add the two student allowances of $118.98 net on top of that - and the students will possibly pay board as student allowances include accommodation costs.

The state assistance available to this family is way more than the family's stated gross income.