End The Love Tax!
Closing the Wellbeing Glitch with Individualised Disability Support.
Sometimes the snow comes down in June
Sometimes the sun goes 'round the moon
I see the passion in your eyes
Sometimes it's all a big surprise
Songwriters: Philip E. Galdston / Wendy Waldman-parker / Jon Lind.
“A fair society doesn’t command the vulnerable to swim behind the boat while their partners exhaust themselves rowing for two, a decent society places everybody in a boat and gives everyone an oar.”
Today’s edition is about two people and a petition. First, let’s meet Sarah, a reader of this newsletter who sent me a message last night:
I would like to make you aware of a very important petition to assist disabled people. It is fighting for the right of a permanently disabled or chronically ill person not to lose all their government support if they have or get a working partner, or if their partner starts working. It would give them a guaranteed minimum personal income. I have written about it in the attached letter.
It closes in 5 days, and I thought you might be prepared to share it if you agree it is important.
Kind regards,
Sarah.
She also wrote some lovely words about the work I do, which I’ve removed to spare my blushes. I suggested we put out a newsletter and asked for some information about who was organising the petition.
Sarah indicated that she had been writing to members of parliament about this exact same issue over the last few weeks, so she was very supportive of the petition when she saw it and introduced Ricky Andrews, the organiser.
Ricky said I was welcome to share anything about the petition, including a video he had produced. Adding, “It's not the best video, but it was the best of about 30 attempts. I struggle with my speaking due to Parkinson's.”
Here it is, and I encourage you to watch to put a face to this issue. Governments talk about numbers, rules and entitlements, but behind their decisions are people.
Over to Sarah now, and this is the letter she sent me:
I thought I should bring to your attention a petition that I came across on Sunday. It is regarding disabled people losing their Supported Living Payment when they start a relationship with a working partner (or when their existing partner increases their earnings). It closes on 30 June, so there are only 5 days left for people to sign it.
In the current situation, for a couple without children, once a working partner earns $64,587.00 annually, a disabled person’s Supported Living Payment is completely cut off (and, from an annual working income of $8,320, it starts to be reduced). Once it is cut off, it leaves the disabled person completely reliant on their partner for all their income.
Additionally, once the working partner earns more than $67,346 annually, the disabled person completely loses their Disability Allowance, which covers actual additional costs they incur due to their disability (up to $82.85 per week at this income level, depending on their costs).
The disabled person also loses their Community Services Card once their Supported Living Payments stop, and then they usually pay much more for their healthcare. The Community Services Card is more useful to a disabled person than an average person, because they usually have far higher health needs due to their disability, so this can be very costly too.
The petition seeks to change this so that a disabled person keeps a guaranteed 60% of the normal Supported Living Payment amount regardless of their partner’s income, and keeps their Disability Allowance and Community Services Card.
The existing system is discriminatory and a relic of days gone by, when a single household income was enough to cover typical household expenses. At current costs, a household often requires two incomes to cover its expenses. Single-income households pay more in taxes than two lower-income households with the same total income, due to our progressive tax rates.
In addition, and this is horrible, it prevents disabled people from their right to find a romantic partner, because if a healthy working person meets a disabled person and moves in with them, they will immediately have to support them completely and pay for all their disability needs too. So really, it is very unlikely that a disabled person will find someone who is willing to enter a relationship with them.
They will also usually be prevented from having children because they cannot find a partner. This becomes extremely discriminatory if you think of it this way. And this probably leads to a great deal of loneliness and isolation in the disabled community. A working partner should not be a disabled person’s life support just because they choose to be in a romantic relationship with them.
In my case, I have a disabled partner and two children, and I work. We receive Working for Families, so my situation is slightly different. However, it is similar because after I went back to work after having our children, we completely lost our Supported Living Payment and our Community Services Card, just as a couple with no children would.
While we do receive Working for Families, that payment is supposed to help support our children, not my disabled partner. And we do pay a lot more in taxes than a family with two lower incomes that add up to the same total income as ours. Working for Families is based on a family’s total before-tax income, and doesn’t take into account that we pay thousands of dollars more in tax than a family with their income split between two working partners.
However, because this is not about us and at least Working for Families does help our family a little, I am more concerned about other disabled people than us.
I am more concerned about the position of single disabled people who cannot find a partner who is willing to take on this burden, and they then remain isolated and unable to find love. I am more concerned about people who are already in a relationship and who suddenly find themselves with a permanent illness, which means that they suddenly find themselves going from two incomes to one and having to dip into both partners’ Kiwisaver balances just to cover their normal household expenses. These people are severely disadvantaged by the current system.
If this petition were passed, it would make a huge difference to these disabled people and their partners, if they have them too.
The petition is gaining momentum, with 1,100 signatures now, up from 300 a week ago. But they want to collect 10,000 signatures to make it more likely the select committee will take it seriously, and there are only 5 days left.
The petition can be found on the Parliament website here:
If you’d like to sign it, you only have until the 30th of June, so the best time to do it is right now.
If you would like more information, the petition's Facebook page, which has lots of related content, can be found here, and the decouple website explains it all here.
Right, I’m off to sign a petition. Have a good day, all you lovely people. I very much hope Ricky and everyone involved get the numbers they’re after, and thank you to Sarah for sharing this with me, and now with all of you.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
In choosing a song for today, I asked Ricky if he had any thoughts, and he suggested something from the soundtrack to Priscilla, which is also a favourite of mine.
Back in the 90s, when I was at Uni, and the Grunge gods ruled the airwaves, the soundtracks from the Aussie movies Priscilla and Muriel’s Wedding found their way onto the jukebox at the student bar and were on high rotation. The songs really remind me of the time, and here’s Vanessa Williams with Save The Best For Last.
Mōrena Nick and Nick's Kōrero whānau.
Thank you for this newsletter and this information. I was completely unaware of this.
As a disabled person myself, although, my circumstances are slightly different because I'm single, anything that concerns the disability community is very personal, ans so I feel it's my duty to fight for others who this and many others will affect. For far too long, our disability hapori (community) have been ignored and it almost feels like we have become second-class citizens. (That probably sounds a bit dramatic.)
Have a great day. It's bloody cold and currently raining here in Pōneke, so a day in front of the fire is in order.
It's now time for me to sign that petition.
Ngā mihi Nick. Appreciate you.
This is worth fighting for, it says so much about being a civilised society. In a future world I hope someone reports “first they came for the landlords…”