A decade on the sickness benefit
The Herald reports:
A sickness beneficiary with a taxpayer-subsidised state house was instead living in an upmarket Auckland suburb and driving luxury cars worth $250,000.
So was he renting out his state house?
Paul Yu Szeto, also known as Yu Hong Ho, is facing money laundering and methamphetamine charges and is due to appear in the High Court at Auckland this month. …
However, the police have also seized three valuable vehicles from Szeto, including a Porsche Cayenne and two late-model Mercedes Benz, worth a combined total of $250,000.
A sickness beneficiary for nearly a decade, Szeto was living at a Housing New Zealand property in the North Shore suburb of Belmont. When drug detectives searched the state house last July, they found it unoccupied.
Hmmn, he has been on the benefit for a decade yet has managed to “earn” enough money to acquire $250,000 of cars.
I wonder how often WINZ had him tested for eligibility to be on the sickness benefit.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:04 am
“I wonder how often WINZ had him tested for eligibility to be on the sickness benefit”
probably just a medical certificate from Dr. Hu
February 6th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Best part of the story was that he is a Chinese national. WTF! Is that got something to do with an FTA? Shit -o- dear we are doomed by our own stupidity.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Will we see anyone from winz sacked for this gross negligence?
ah I thought not.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:10 am
I’d crucify the bloody lot of them Mike.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:15 am
The majority of drug dealers, growers and manufacturers are going to be on benefits as well, it gives them easy access to petty cash and legit bank accounts etc. How many people with a real job have time for drug dealing?
All the useless dope-heads around me have their houses, food, drugs and luxuries paid for by the taxpayer.
How about regular drug testing to receive a benefit? We could halve our social welfare bill overnight.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:24 am
I wonder how often WINZ had him tested for eligibility to be on the sickness benefit.
How on earth is a WINZ eligability test going to determine if someone is money-laundering?
[DPF: I was not suggesting it would. I am suggesting he is well enough to work in a legal job]
February 6th, 2010 at 10:31 am
If convicted he should be deported.
Chinese national…….sorry can’t do that,we have to protect his human rights.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:32 am
This is an example of the typical and inevitable abuse of the welfare system that big government largesse leads to. NZ has enough of it’s own home-grown criminal trash to contend with, we shouldn’t be importing any.
February 6th, 2010 at 10:49 am
This is an abuse of the system. It is impossible to stop these abuses just like it is impossible to stop to stop white collar criminal stealing million at the banks they work at.
There is always a balance between delivery to service to those who have genuine need and policing the delivery. People lie and can fool doctors if we sent people after everyone receiving a benefit (or worked in a bank) then the cost of the benefit system (or finance industry) would increase dramatically.
When caught these people need to be punish, Firstly I’s get them to remove all the chewing gum from Queens St, Auckland or Manchester Street, Christchurch
February 6th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Apart from the winz failure we also have the failure of HNZ. Clearly they did not do proper inspections of the property. Had they done so it would have been reasonably obvious that something was amiss.
But that’s HNZ for you. Few if any proper inspections despite the filled in reports.
Reason, many property managers are afraid to go inside the houses. They don’t hold keys as most commercial agents do so if the tenant isn’t home and doesn’t want to be, sit in the car and say you have looked. (fraud by another name)
Housing NZ needs to be made accountable for our assets regardless of how hard it might be.
Better idea would be for HNZ to devolve out the renting to approved rental agencies. and for HNZ to be a SOE.
Then the govt. can rid itself of the conflict of interest it has with housing. On the one hand it is the rule maker and on the other the rental agent. The problem with this is that it is also the maker of policy for social issues and like all bad govt.s everywhere they just cannot help themselves when it comes to being principled about these things.
The previous accommodation supplement that was in place with the last Nat. Govt. was a much better system and less want to manipulation.
HNZ is like a few other govt. quangos, it should be isolated and got rid off so they can no longer be subject to the wims of whoever is incumbent at any time. Broadcasting comes to mind.
February 6th, 2010 at 11:05 am
Viking2
The accommodation supplement still exist. Of course it is a subsidy that inflates the cost of housing and impacts on the market. Give money to those who invest in the non productive housing industry at the expense of the tax-payer what will the right think of next SMP for farmers?
February 6th, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I guarantee you this guy is just the tip of the iceberg, the meth trade is so lucrative and pervasive it poses a huge risk to our society and thats not even taking into account the effects of smoking the shit. There are some high end heads making serious money and building mini empires, while at the same time their is a whole legion of wannabe “scarface” dickheads causing all sorts of trouble.
February 6th, 2010 at 12:43 pm
Shit mikey I’ve just realised what “smokes” really means “gulp”. Its all sweet bro I’ll never argue with you again.
February 6th, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Inky, well why not? We subsidize all the rate payers( I was going to say you as a rate payer but I guess you’re not).
We are about to be ripped off by a National Govt in favour of the Gambling (oops sorry) share market.
But you are right, Govt should stop paying those allowances and leave us all with the money that we earn. That way you and all the other renters could pay your own way. and house prices will go up as noone will be bothered investing in new ones nor will anyone be bothered with having tenants if the rents don’t rise. Laws of supply and demand twisted by the stupid behavoir of socialists who are born to interfere with the market place.
Never works , never fair and never will.
February 6th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
You have nothing to fear Johnboy I’m not your neighbourhood Chopper Read. Mikey only smokes pall mall and the occasional twist top
February 6th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Lets get away from this bullshit that renters don’t pay rates. Of course they do it is just built into the rents they pay. The end user always foots the bill.
When Neville and the noddies add a land tax (already being paid as rates, will just increase rates) and whack the filthy capitalist bastards with capital gains tax and double taxation on any business that involves renting out property not to mention increasing GST. Who the fuck will pay.
Yes you got it right, give that man the coconut, the poor bastard at the bottom of the heap AKA “The Consumer”.
When Neville and the noddies start getting the picture that we voted them in to do the opposite to the Hag and reduce the ever increasing greed of the stinking socialist assholes who have governed (sic) this sad little shit hole for nine years and give us our tax cuts instead of looking for more to buy off their new fatarse greedy playmates the aparthied party then we might keep them in power for a bit longer.
I predict Goofy, Trev and Little boy in 2011 cause I won’t be voting for the slimy little smiling feller/double dipper next time around.
February 6th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
“Mikey only smokes pall mall ”
Filthy polluting bastard, crucifixion awaits you too if you are ever caught smoking at the beach again.
February 6th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
As I have said before buying shares is not investing it is saving. Building a factory is investing, building a house is investing.
If a company issues new shares and builds a factory the company has invested. The people who have bought the shares has merely saved (at an unknown return that may indeed be negative)
Houses in New Zealand are
1. overvalued
2. do not result (normally) in production (unless someone operates a small business or P-Lab out of them)
3. take away money from the productive sector
February 6th, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Thats a very sorry state of affairs Johnboy I dont know if I could bring myself to vote for Phool Goof and that plank of wood Mallard
February 6th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
No don’t get me wrong Mikey. I was never suggesting voting for the Labour Party collective bags of shit. I’d rather be crucified, but it is just to point out that many of us righties voted for the slimly little asshole Key to ensure that we got shot of the Hag Helen.
It appears more and more as time goes by and the little prick thinks that the poll results have made him PM for life that he can betray us and get away with it.
I’ve got a message for you John-Boy Key tack your colours to the the mory flag pole at Waitangi at your peril and kiss goodbye to your easy ride.
I and many others will go back to our real home that at the moment is represented by ACT not National.
February 6th, 2010 at 3:24 pm
This really pisses me off. In benefits and paying no tax etc for 10 years this guy has probably cost the country in excess of $300 to $500K.
Yet my wife who works and pays shit loads of tax has to buy herself an insulin pump and the high ongoing monthly costs because the Govt says there is no money to fund them. Bullshit.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
“plank of wood Mallard”
haha bloody brilliant. Do they have the sickness benefit in China and India?
February 6th, 2010 at 5:39 pm
Inky, no wonder your logic is fucked. Buying shares is gambling. By all definitions as you have no control over the outcome other than to trust to luck.
In case you don’t read to widely hop over to the Australian and read about yesterdays stock market gamble. Lost 30 Billion in value. Now that’s great investing.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Viking2
Yes buying shares has risk. What you seem to want is for there to be both high returns and no risk in the residential property market.
What should happen is high return = high risk. Low risk venture like government backed saving schemes and residential proporty should have low returns. That is basis of the free market –
As a Democratic Socialist I see good reason for government control over markets. However this does not extend to propping up people who own houses they don’t live in.
February 6th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
BTW if you have an alternative to the share market for buying and selling shares in companies. I’d love to hear them.
February 7th, 2010 at 7:30 am
I have been meaning to move to Kiwiland but now if I can be ill and get a quarter million dollars I am on my way for sure!
February 7th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Yet another glaring example of how badly our money is wasted by shiny arsed bureaucrats who do fuck all for their salaries. Who can blame the fella for ripping off the system when it’s so easy to do? Problem is it only encourages more to do the same.
And Johnboy, what you said at 1.15pm was spot on.
February 7th, 2010 at 10:11 am
??Is this a New Zealand disease, it’s ok to rip off whatever you can?
Just because doing crap may be easy to do doesn’t excuse it.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Pete I’ll have my tongue surgically removed from my cheek just for you. I was being sarcastic, not encouraging or condoning.
On a positive note from your post you did point out – “Just because doing crap may be easy to do” – this is exactly the problem.
We have a MASSIVE amount of waste of our taxpayers dollars, both in what it is paid out for and the people who pay it out on our behalf. I blame the bureaucrats who give it out more than the thieves who rip it off. They don’t give a fuck, it isn’t their money. Don’t get me wrong, I understand why they do it. They just want to get through their shitty days in their shitty jobs dealing with shitty people to get their money so they can pay their bills.
More to the point I blame this lily livered, soft cock Government for not doing anything about it. Who can blame a shiny arsed pen pusher for taking the money when you have an employer who doesn’t seem to give a fuck that he has too many employees and that a large percentage of them are useless bastards doing fuck all but passing the time for eight hours a day?
Sorry, let me get that right, ultimate blame lies with us, the soft cock public who repeatedly let successive Governments take the piss out of us when they never do what they said they would prior to election.
If National don’t do something decisive this year I am opting out of the system. I think a sickness benefit for the depression I am suffering from watching a complete lack of politic will or honesty and for the severe headaches brought on by beating my head of a wall in disbelief at some of the shit that is allowed to go on. Then grow some weed, bake some meth, get a pit bull/staffie cross, a solo mum with a state house and a counselor. That should take the pressure off.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:24 am
I suspect your tongue is back there kaya.
I think a major part of the problem is public attitude. Not speaking up enough about it. And especially “because everyone else does it”. Everyone else should keep making bloody clear that it is OUR money being wasted, OUR taxes that pay for it and it is US that is being ripped off.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:26 am
Why doesn’t the Govt just cut 10% from the welfare budget, but not reduce the level of entitlements?
That way WINZ etc will have to be more diligent in who receives the handouts.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Pete – It is a sense of entitlement which has been allowed to develop over many years – same as spoiling kids, you make a rod for your own back.
The difficult part is changing that attitude to get people to develop self respect and strive to be better all round contributing members of society. The last 9 years of shite from Labour set us back at least a generation. They in particular encouraged people to believe they are victims, without any control over their own lives. “Nanny state” was often bandied about but it is an accurate description. Well meaning but totally useless.
Here’s a wee simple one that doesn’t hurt. I used to complain about people who left litter at the beach, now I just pick up all my own shit and at least one piece of shit I find there. If everyone did that there would be no litter. Problem solved. Eventually the morons who litter would get the idea and THEN you will find attitudes changing. Lead by example and keep Government out of it as much as possible. They are mostly useless.