Work and Income (WINZ)

Unemployed

Despite getting sole custody and denying us contact, my ex and her partner one day decided they didn't want our son afterall. They were in England and told me to come get him, which I did.

I had been working as a lecturer on web technology, but now my son needed me to collect him from school every week day at 3pm. Alas I didn't finish work until 5 and having only recently moved to Christchurch I had nobody who could help. My new employer refused to change my hours, so I quit. I started looking for a new job with hours that would accomodate my son's schedule.

Luckily I qualified for a "carer" allowance from WINZ, so we managed to get by, but with a broken track record and only part time availability, I had little success.

Quake City

A couple of years later, Christchurch was hit with Earthquakes. About 30,000 significant aftershocks followed. My son's school was closed and he would have to go on a bus to a different place, but he flatly refused. The authorities were soon threatening to take me to court for that.

Although I had always had home insurance, that year mine allegedly turned out to be invalid and trades people were booked for years in advance, many taking advantage of generous insurance payouts in the richer areas. We had no sewer, no water and there was liquefaction everywhere. I was not coping well at all. In the end I phoned the ex begging her to take our boy back as he was refusing to cooperate even with simple things, like using the porta-potty.

Not long after he left I concluded I was truly fed up trying to live up to male gender stereotype and so I presented as feminine transwoman, but I will discuss that elsewhere.

Illness

About a year later, I became ill and was diagnosed with pneumonia. I remember having to pull over and breath deeply driving to the surgery, as I started feeling light headed and dizzy, probably lacking oxygen due to congestion in my lungs. My doctor said I was the sickest person she had ever seen alive and I don't think she meant my mental state, because she was the doctor of choice for the Christchurch trans community!

Despite taking the prescribed anti-biotics, my condition deteriorated. I was also having very vivid yet ominous dreams and not sleeping well. One day just walking down to letterbox I collapsed. Phasing in and out of consciouness on my drive way, I remember seeing neighbors walk past. I didn't have the breath to call out and they just glanced and walked on.

Then I saw my cellphone had fallen from my pocket where I lay. Grabbed it and I manged to dial 111. The ambulance got there just before dusk. They said I was lucky it wasn't dark yet, or they never would have found me. I ended up in the emergency ward and was unconscious for a day or more.. I just don't know. When I woke up there was a "not for resucitiation" label on my wrist, but as I was now awake they did some tests and gave me oxygen.

I had contracted Legionnaires disease. It transpired there had been an outbreak which the authorities had hushed up and blamed on a cooling tower that had now been disinfected. My infection however, was a soil based variety, definitely not from the cooling tower. Later I learned of others who had the soil based variety too, but health officials seemed very keen to blame mine on an almost empty bag of potting compost, left in the garden from last year.

Personally I think it was something that came up with the liquefaction and we should have been warned to wear face masks, especially with the large cloud of asbestos dust from the collapsed city centre. I suspect they were trying to avoid a panic but not telling anyone, meant my doctor didn't know of the outbreak and so she had got the wrong diagnosis.

I had addititional complication of pulmonary embolism. Those could be result of fine liqufaction dust that was everywhere (especiually under my floor), or maybe the asbestos dust (from city center). It could even be delayed consequence of having been a smoker many years before.

Once I was on the right anti-biotics I start recovering. They put me on blood thinners to try and prevent the clots in my lungs getting any worse. None the less, the doctors only gave me a 50/50 chance of living another 5 years. I started wondering if it was even worth looking for a job despite what Work and Income said my duties would be.

Photography

For some years already I had been the target of hate crimes, verbal abuse, vandalism, thefts and a burglary. I just assumed it was a shitty part of town. I became aware my house was under surveillance but had no idea by whom or why. Having done nothing wrong, I assumed eventually they should realize they were just wasting their time, then leave me be.

A Facebook friend, professional photographer, realized I was under a lot of stress and he got me interested in doing photography to get my mind off things. He even invited me to go share a holiday rental in Victoria for a week and he would teach me techniques. I hadn't be away any where for years and really needed that break.

Malicious Slander

On arriving home I got a stroppy letter from WINZ telling me they hadn't approved my trip. They had stopped my benefit and demanded I report in. The meeting was brutal, accusing me of "working in the sex trade" and of benefit fraud. They didn't give me a chance to get a word in edgewise and eventually I just got up and walked out crying.

Unable to communicate I got a lawyer to sort it out, but now subsequent to more abuse and penalties provoked by false accusations to various authorities and WINZ deducting "infringement fees" direct from my superannuation while my right to a hearing was declined, I've submitted a request under the Official Information Act and I will be documenting how that goes on a separate page from the drop down menu here.

Ongoing hostilities from the community and some very ill-informed advice from a fiend, evenytually made me want to get out. As always I was bamboozled and ripped off by local council and propert developers. I suspect shenanigans as I managed to get only $280,000 for a well insulated property with two heat pumps and quality double glazing throughout, even though only weeks after I agreed to sell, the land value alone was listed as $400,000 (see QV assessment).

Superannuation Fiasco

I had been saving for my retirement all my life but time and a gain I got ripped off by pyramid ponzi pension schemes and finance managers that were raking in huge commission for selling utterly useless policies. New Zealand had a reciprocal arrangement with the UK and so I was expecting to rely on New Zealand superannuation which would have covered my basic living expenses while owning my own home in Christchurch.

Alas the Labour government decided to drop that and force me to apply for superannuation both from the UK and the Netherlands even though I have been New Zealand national from birth and have lived here for decades. That transition did not go smoothly.

I shall document it as it unfolds in a sparate page of this chapter, but the above e-mail that I sent to MSD international sevices on 2024-04-26 explains where I stand at the moment. I find it impossible to get anywhere with the corporate bureaucratic machine. Their employees behave like mindles cogs following unexplained rules of their system with no humanity at all.