It's hard enough being a refugee, and a student. When you battle the bureaucrats, it can be hell, writes Kieran Nash.
Refugees come to New Zealand for a fresh start in a friendly, benign country.
For one group of Auckland refugees, this has been soured by what should have been a simple benefit switch.
A breakdown in communication by various Government departments means dozens of families have faced weeks without food, mounting bills and looming homelessness.
The issue arose after the funding provider changed for Glendowie-based Refugee Education for Adults and Families in December.
Under the previous funding system, students could get the unemployment benefit but, this year, students had to transfer to the student allowance. So, in early February, StudyLink and Work and Income New Zealand (Winz) representatives went to the college's registration day to help with benefit applications. This initial visit was followed by four more.
But, for some students, a lack of English and computer literacy made these visits a confusing experience.
Burmese refugee Ellen Zone Pu sat with a representative who entered her details into the system. "They gave me paper and showed me my password and username. I thought that that was the finish. She said I had to do something but I didn't understand properly. I thought it was finished. I thought it'd be okay."
Most of the students thought once the session was over they would receive funding from StudyLink. But, in most cases, additional documents were needed to start their payments.
Winz payments continued for a month then suddenly stopped, leaving the refugees with bills for the extra benefit paid. This was the first time many of them knew there was a problem with their funding.
For Ellen Zone, this meant a three-week gap in payments when she had no money for food, rent and her automatic payments.
"One week, two weeks, three weeks, then, later, I know about the situation. I was anxious - I had no food. My teacher asked me to go to Winz for a food voucher that day, also from Housing New Zealand was a bill.
"I worry for power, rent and Telecom bill. What should I do? I worry."
So Ellen Zone went to her teacher who helped her apply, which was a stressful and time-consuming process.
"So many times I had to see the manager. I had to explain so many times. The problem is Winz and StudyLink, when they changed the system their communicating made it very confusing," she says.
At this point, Ellen Zone's English fails her. "Because we're very poor English and don't know computers, both their communication is not matching."
Although everything is resolved, other students still encounter the same problems
and come the end of the year, the students will have to reapply for Winz benefits for the holiday period, then go through the same StudyLink process again in February next year.
Volunteer teacher Pat Northey is helping the refugees untangle their benefit troubles. "It's just absolutely astounding this is happening. It's not just changing from one benefit to the other. You either have people starving with no money or you have people with a bill from Winz. That's been going on all term."
The teachers end up having to help with each case.
"The time it takes to do this is absolutely disgusting. It's a very time-consuming, clumsy procedure that you have to go through.
"It's not the business of teachers to suddenly become the agents of StudyLink, Winz, the IRD, and Housing NZ.
"I just can't understand why the agencies that support these people have such tunnel vision."
Winz and StudyLink are reviewing the level of support and information for students when transferring to their correct benefit.
Social Development regional commissioner Losalina McAlpine says in a statement: "In this case, it is clear we could have done more to support them through their transition and I apologise for any undue stress to the families affected.
"Language should not be a barrier to accessing our services. We will continue to work with specialist education providers to ensure that their students have the information they need to access our services."
Aucklander
