$86,000 a year for 15 years on the benefit

The Herald reports:

Hundreds of state beneficiaries are receiving payments totalling more than $1000 a week.

The top 50 recipients face an audit of their entitlements ordered by Social Development Minister Paula Bennett. …

They include a couple with 10 children who get $1200 a week. Both parents have been on the unemployment benefit for more than 15 years.

$1,200 a week is their net income. This is equivalent to a salary of $86,000 a year or $1,657 a week gross.

It is likely over their time on the benefit, they have had the equivalent of over a million dollars.

90% of parents choose to restrict the size of their families to what they can afford. People make rational decisions on whether they can afford a third or a forth child. There is no simple answer, but most Kiwis would be aghast at paying two parents the dole for 15 years, during which time they have 10 kids. Now there may be something unique to their circumstances, but the fact they are on the dole not the sickness, invalids or dpb suggests something very wrong. How can anyone be on the dole for 15 years?