Grrrr Studylink and WINZ

The whole system sucks sometimes! Just look at how stupid it is for Janine. If she works fulltime she is worse off... how does that make sense?? Maybe you should go in and talk to them.. if they have stuffed up they might be able to fix it?? God I think you need to know what you are entitled to and then go in, otherwise they just tell you that your not entitlted to anything. But working part time might be good. Gets you out of the house for some time to yourself if nothing else!!

The stupid (and I will call her that forever now) didn't read the review form well enough and just skipped over the part that says I am studying. I have a letter from Massey (good thing about knowing the important people there) to say that I study for 37.5 hours a week and Andrew is in daycare for 36 hours a week. So I am sure we are covered for that.

Have to find out about the secondary tax. I have just found the perfect job. It is however permanent (so not that great for me being pregnant - but could always lie and say I just found out after if I get the job), but the hours are just 9am till 1pm Monday to Friday. It is just around the corner from me so I could walk there. So I need to kind out about what I am entitled to from IRD when I finish my 10 hour a week job earning next to nothing.

The WINZ call centre is just as bad. And I mentioned in the IRD thread about how WINZ loaded my debt twice... Oh and when Willie and I split up and I went on the DPB my case manager left the Child Support forms sitting in my file and never sent them to the IRD so Willie got away with not paying until someone picked up the mistake 18 mths later. And they apparently can only charge him from the date the form was filed, which means he got 18 mths off having to pay while th egood old tax payer funded my DPB. As a taxpayer now...

I have a great case manager now (I think - will let you know after I see him at 3pm today lol), he actually gets the whole working for families thing. I hate that when I go there I always feel like some kind of dole bludger, and I've had case managers make me feel like that in the past, but my new case manager doesn't which is nice.

You can apply for Limited Full Time status if you are below the EFTS, the criteria are that you are either finishing a course and the number of credits you need are less than full time, or that you have circumstances that mean you can't study full time. I managed to scrape in on that one when I was preg with Maya...

Limited full time status.. that's what i got.. i was preg and had to pull out of a few papers.. then to finish off 2nd year had to go part time..   as long as your EFTs add up to a certain number you still qualify for all the same as a full time student, you just need a letter from the MW and from the uni to basically state that these are the reasons and that your hours still add up to this amount..

Also, I know you might not want to do it.. but for us we never bothered with the student allowance cos it's a taxable income thingie and affects mikes tax.. try going thru your student loan.. claiming the living costs.. which is non-taxable as you have to eventually pay it back.. you can get up to $150 a week.. that's what we did, and yeah my student loan got bumped up a bit.. but hey, if it means you can live and make the mortgage then go for it.

speaking of those lovely people.. i received a letter today to say that they had overpaid Ayja's daycare subsidy for that one week that i had worked before ringing them.. what they don't take into account is that when they did my review a few months back and sent me a letter saying the girls daycare subsidies had been dropped to 9 hours a week each.. they never actually paid any of Paris's one at all i now find.. so really.. i don't see why they can't just transfer it.. they said if i want them to pay her subsidie up till when i started work i can get them to do that.. grr why don't they just be sensible and write it off.

When I was studying and preg and dp was on ACC on $260 a week we were getting about $80 accomodation supplement and that was all we were entitled to. I had to get student loan $150 a week just to live and then use the $1000 course related costs to last until bubs arrived. It made me so mad because I was real preg and couldn't work and ben was waiting for surgery so he couldn't work.

And why do they only have people that can't speak english in the call centres.

Hope things work out 4 ya

hhhhm Becks.. just you take it easy.. 18 hours of work a week.. doesn't sound too much like resting up to me.

I'm so annoyed with StudyLink (annoyed it not really the word - but I can't put those words in there). I am sure they make it so hard for people to study that have children and have partners.

First Call (5 minutes): I don't qualify for the Living costs because of my EFT's. He told me to go to WINZ and go and apply for the sickness benifit - tell me how I can get the sickness benefit please. I am pregnant not SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He also told me that being pregnant does not qualify you for Limited full time status - anyone wish to disagree, cos I sure as hell didn't want to listen to him anymore. I got his name and hung up on him.

Second Call (20 minutes): Got a really nice person who advised me that as I have a letter from Massey and my MW that I should apply for limited fulltime status (hmmm, same call centre, should give same info). He also told me I could get the allowance and get the top up from the living costs. I have opted for just the living costs as the allowance is just causing too much hassle for me. He also told me that giving out the option f going on the sickness benefit is the last option as it's not the best option to do when you are pregnant. Got his name and now heading to the outreach centre thing to apply for limited full time status and he also told me to apply for a grant to get some money so we can pay the mortgage this week. I think after this my studying days are over, I can't handle going through this again. (I would also hate to see what my BP is at the moment) Fingers crossed I can get some money to survive this week. My last option is to get an overdraft on my account which I don't want to do.

I seriously would be happy having this baby early. But not too early. I'm thinking at 37 weeks would be fine - then I wouldn't see you there. But if we did end up there at least I might be able to trust 1 person with my baby .

I don't think we would be able to get hte sickness benefit cos of Nigel's wage but who knows. The nice lady at the outreach centre told me we could apply for a food grant, but I think I wait a bit for it, we shop fortnightly and I did it last week so we just need bread and milk no biggy.

We've had our run of Study Link and WINZ too, with both girls DH was studying full-time and I was working under 10 hours a week. It sure is hard and so frustrating to try to talk to anyone nice! Becks if you're still having trouble I have often wondered whether it would help to see a budget advisor, just because they probably know what WINZ/SLink outght to be paying you and can work at them on your behalf.... just a thought, I never quite got there myself.