Trouble with WINZ
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Category: Support
Forum Name: Single parenting
Forum Description: Share tips, trials and tribulations about parenting alone
URL: https://www.ohbaby.co.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=40539
Printed Date: 26 April 2024 at 3:28pm
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Topic: Trouble with WINZ
Posted By: ....
Subject: Trouble with WINZ
Date Posted: 19 September 2011 at 11:28am
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WINZ have told me that I need to get a letter from a solicitor stating that there is a lack of evidence to proceed with paternity in order for them not to cut my DPB (as DS's father is not on Birth Certificate and now lives out of town with an unknown address so can't be tracked down at this point.)
However Legal Aid will not cover this, and the solicitor has emailed me saying: "It would be $200 plus GST to do the WINZ letter and we would require this money up front. I have spoken to one of our other solicitors here and have been informed that WINZ are still likely to cut back your benefit even if we write a letter saying that there is no way of finding the father. Please let me know what you would like to do." Can anyone shed some light on what I should do? Splash out money that I don't have and have WINZ still cut my benefit, or not? Seems like a lose-lose situation for me. ETA: Clarity |
Replies:
Posted By: fallen
Date Posted: 19 September 2011 at 11:37am
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Hi. I experienced the same situation with my eldest daughter's father. I went and saw a solicitor when she was a couple of months old. I don't remember being required to pay him though. He wrote the letter. Yes my DPB was still cut. But it did get WINZ and IRD off my back regarding who her father was.
She was nearly 6 when he got in contact and I started the paternity proceedings. Aparantly paternity applications have to be filed with the court before the child's 6th birthday. So we only just scraped in there. ------------- |
Posted By: minik8e
Date Posted: 19 September 2011 at 8:02pm
| Could you go through the paternity process any other way - i.e. applying for substituted service (this means someone who is close to him and likely to bring it to his attention is served with the paperwork and can get you to the next step), or anything like that? |
Posted By: KAC09
Date Posted: 19 September 2011 at 8:19pm
| I sent my exs custody papers to his mum using substituted service. |
Posted By: Plushie
Date Posted: 20 September 2011 at 8:13am
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Depends chick, if you want to get them of your back the easiest way is to file the papers against him. I'm pretty sure just you telling them his full name and anything else you know (like a DOB or his parents address) is enough, they get of your back and they take on the task of tracking him down.
If you want to keep him of the birth certificate, it might be worth paying $200 now and having it over and done with rather then it coming up againt and again and again. A friend of mine told Winz she had no idea who her babies father was - apparently they looked at her sideways every time she goes in but worth it for her i guess. Just flat out said she didnt know! |
Posted By: Plushie
Date Posted: 20 September 2011 at 8:14am
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Depends chick, if you want to get them of your back the easiest way is to file the papers against him. I'm pretty sure just you telling them his full name and anything else you know (like a DOB or his parents address) is enough, they get of your back and they take on the task of tracking him down.
If you want to keep him of the birth certificate, it might be worth paying $200 now and having it over and done with rather then it coming up againt and again and again. A friend of mine told Winz she had no idea who her babies father was - apparently they looked at her sideways every time she goes in but worth it for her i guess. Just flat out said she didnt know! |
Posted By: LateStarterLorna
Date Posted: 21 September 2011 at 7:41pm
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I wouldnt name the father as he is just a donor, so I dont want anything from him, so I told winz that I wasnt going to name him, I get a letter every couple of months letting me know they are deducting $6, not sure how long this goes on for but factoring in the $200 + GST, its the cheaper option - or are my maths totally out?
And its no real hassle, letter, read, bin  ------------- http://www.TickerFactory.com/weight-loss/weIHiFu/" rel="nofollow">  |
Posted By: Gee1979
Date Posted: 27 September 2011 at 3:57pm
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I had a major problem with this too. I got onto the benefit DPB fine, I had to have a birth certificate and it was Births Deaths and Marriages who were my main problem. I had to jump a few hoops there but eventually I got a birth cert without the dads name on as he had gone from his last address and no one was talking about where, he would not respond to any emails. I am currently going thru a lawyer with legal aid (what are the reasons for not granting you legal aid????), they did a substituted service on his parents in ashburton for me as he has a new american partner and is over there a lot. WINZ were cutting my benefit for a time, but as soon as I went to a lawyer and they gave them a letter to say they were proceeding with paternity and court, WINZ had to reinstate the money they cut which was about $20-$28 a week from memory (and you will need it, trust me, just even homebrand bulk nappies for the week). So, I still got the dpb but i had to go to a lawyer straight away to apply for dpb, about 6 months later i chickened out and stopped paternity proceedings and winz cut my benefit, then about feb this year i decided to go for it again, its still ongoing and winz have reinstated the money. All legal aid funded tho. ------------- Gianna |
Posted By: Babe
Date Posted: 28 September 2011 at 8:27am
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I'd take the cut in benefit and keep him off the BC because then he can totally interfere even though you think he might not but thats just my 2c lol as for the letter have you tried your local community law place? They're often free or super-cheap. -------------   
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Posted By: ButterflyBebe
Date Posted: 29 October 2011 at 2:45am
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Heya same scenario here for me, my son's father took off to Aus when I was a few months along in my pregnancy ...he made sure he cut ties with all mutual friends and covered his tracks so none of us could locate him. All I knew is that he was somewhere in Melbourne.
I too received the letter stating that my benefit would be deducted by such an amount in set periods if I didn't provide reasonable evidence stating the name of baby's father or having him on birth cert etc, I just went and got a 'Statutory Declaration' from a local Solicitor ...paid about $150 (back in 2007) and they stopped cutting my benefit after a few lots of $6, but when I did turn up at WINZ with this Stat Dec I'd paid for to shut them up, they said how it wasn't necessary and it didn't make a difference. He's still not on the birth cert 4.5 years later and I happened to bump into him at the supermarket 2 weeks ago and had some choice things to say after he'd disappeared off the face of the planet since I was preg 
WINZ eventually tire with the threats to cut this and that, it's not fair that these fools can run off and not take responsibility, and we get somewhat punished for their actions (in this respect). |
Posted By: Flutterby
Date Posted: 29 October 2011 at 11:58am
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The proberly just want the birth fathers details so that they can try and get them to pay child support and thus help pay for the DPB. I got a letter from them a few months after I applied for the DPB, telling me that I had set amount of time to fill out a child support form otheriwse they would cut my benefit. I ran them up as I had already filled one out when I applied for my DPB and the guy I talked to told me not to worry. Turned out that they never even filed the form for DS, when I got all the info about what the ex will be paying for DD, DS's name wasn't even on it. ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: IzzysMum
Date Posted: 02 November 2011 at 12:17am
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Just to clarify what others have said, WINZ do not "keep" cutting the benefit. After you've been on it three months, they deduct $22 per week. After another three months, they deduct a further $6 per week. However after that there are no further deductions.
Me personally, I just take the cut rather than trying to argue it because I don't want the father involved and I don't want anything from him. But the stupid thing about the situation is, he's in the UK so even if he were named on the birth certificate, they couldn't force him to pay child support. |
Posted By: IzzysMum
Date Posted: 02 November 2011 at 12:20am
Yeah I did that too, someone had advised me to say that because I didn't want to give them the father's details. Only thing is, I think it is a relatively common tactic and I don't think they believed me ... |
Bowie wrote:Posted By: aers270191
Date Posted: 15 November 2011 at 8:55pm
| Hi ladies! My babies Dad is on all the information regarding maternity notes and I know who he is an there is no doubt that he is Dad, but he told me to get a paternity test (Im 30 weeks along) and is now facing jail time for an offence. I cant go into more details but just wondering if anyone knows if I can possibly keep his name off the birth certificate or atleast stop him from having contact with my baby boy as he grows up? If hes in jail I dont see what standing he has against me |
Posted By: ....
Date Posted: 20 November 2011 at 9:05pm
| It really depends on the offence. |
Posted By: Gee1979
Date Posted: 22 November 2011 at 6:49pm
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he has no rights if he is not on the birth cert. its only if you go for paternity with a lawyer he will be given some rights and that depends on his character. you can wait a year and go for paternity if you want, my son is nearly 3 and my court hearing for paternity is on thurs. the father only just saw a lawyer last week to try put off the hearing as he knows he will have to pay child support, also back dated as i am now working full time. if you dont want him involved dont put him on the birth cert. you can go thru that later if you want. seems like best interest not to? its up to him to go thru a lawyer to prove he is the dad if he reallyw ants to, but still that may not give him many rights being a crim. ------------- Gianna |
Posted By: Aithne
Date Posted: 24 January 2012 at 12:35am
| From what i remember after my son was born i was told i had until he turned 3 months to name the father or get a letter from a lawyer with my reasons why the father is not named. During those first 3 months i was deducted 6 dollars every week from my DPB. I had my lawyer named for WINZ papers but not a letter due to cost. After this i got a letter from WINZ saying they were going to deduct around 20 dollars a week from then on. My son is nearly 3 now and i dont miss that 20 dollars a week i guess because i never really had it anyway - but i think when he is a teenager and he understands that we lose a thousand a year that will be tougher. |
Posted By: TJ123
Date Posted: 24 January 2012 at 3:54pm
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Work and Income pay the Family Tax Credit via the benefit on behalf of IRD.
Copy and paste the following into your address bar and this hopefully will help you. www.workandincome.govt.nz/manuals-and-procedures/income_support/main_benefits/domestic_purposes_benefit_-_sole_parents/domestic_purposes_benefit_-_sole_parents-146.htm |
Posted By: andweknowthis
Date Posted: 22 February 2012 at 7:03pm
Yep... I wish I'd done that when I had the chance! But that's just me. I'm the middle of court proceedings regarding my son and his biological father and I went through our local community law place. They referred me someome else but it's still free for me. It is up to the discretion of the legal aid people though, do you know why you can't get legal aid? |