A Candid Explanation of my Finances

In this post I'm going to explain my financial situation. Finances can be a very controversial topic, and as I receive a government benefit it's even more so. People in New Zealand overall have a low opinion of people who receive government 'handouts' because of a perception they are lazy and spend their money on unnecessary luxuries, junk food, and drugs. Meanwhile, people overseas can be jealous of the system.

This post is personal, not political, though of course I have opinions and they aren't all positive. In this post I'm just sharing my situation, which is a unique one because my partner isn't a New Zealand resident or citizen so he isn't eligible for any government benefits himself.

Meanwhile, I qualify as long-term disabled because of my Bipolar II, and as long as this is confirmed by a doctor it also qualifies me for the Supported Living Payment from the government without any obligation to find work. It doesn't prevent me from working, either. I can work up to 15 hours per week and earn a certain amount before it affects what I receive.

Here are the current rates for the benefit that I'm on:

While my partner and I were long-distance I was being paid as a single person. Based on the current rates I would be receiving a base total of $464 as a single person made up of the benefit payment plus the Accommodation Supplement for Area 2. (The $412.31 gross amount for a single person before Accommodation Supplement is worth around 19.45 hours at current minimum wage in New Zealand, about half a full-time job.) A married couple on the same benefit would be getting a total of $765, or $382.50 each. Let's use this figure of $765 as the base marker of what a couple in New Zealand is expected to be able to live on in terms of social welfare. Bear in mind that this particular benefit is for people who are long-term disabled and cannot work more than 15 hours per week due to that disability, so it's basically the bare minimum although it pays better than other benefits such as the Jobseeker's Allowance.

When my partner arrived in New Zealand, we began living together and I declared him to be my partner. The rules say that if you are in a relationship, your partner's income counts just as if it were your own. While he wasn't working my benefit wasn't being affected though he also didn't qualify for a benefit of his own. However, while he's employed my benefit gets reduced.

Recently, he got a new part-time job at minimum wage which pays fortnightly. I have to call and spend over an hour on hold every time he gets a payslip to tell the government what he's earning.

Here's the last letter I received to tell me why and how my payments were being reduced:

As a couple we've been living off my single benefit for a long time. The pandemic certainly didn't help as nation-wide lockdown happened only weeks after my partner arrived and hurt his job opportunities, yet he wasn't qualified for any government assistance because he's a visitor to the country. For two and a half years I have kept both of us going on less than $500 per week. Full disclosure, I have a deal on rent which is $50-100 per week less than current market rates, but even then the rent (not including expenses) is still more than 50% of even the biggest payment I've gotten.

If the government decides to step back my payments to the point where I no longer get them, I'm completely financially dependent on my partner.  If I was choosing not to work this would make complete sense to me, but as a disabled person it feels unfair to both me and my partner and I do feel guilty sometimes that I'm so dependent.

Here was my partner's income at the time this letter was calculated using an earnings calculator:

This shows that his weekly take-home pay came to $406.82 per week. My income was reduced to $10,115.04 a year which comes to $194.52 per week. I still qualify for accommodation supplement of $105 as a single person which brings us to a total weekly income as a couple of $706.34. This is quite a bit less than the $765 that a couple on my benefit would receive in total but it's what we get.

As my partner's hours increase our situation will of course improve overall, and his job is being very good to him so things are looking up. This in-between messy period is just really hard to work through and we've been really struggling while waiting for those increased hours to kick in.

Something else mentioned on the letter above is that we owe the government for them overpaying me due to my not being able to inform them of my partner's earnings until it was too late to include the calculation in the next payment. They are taking this from me at the minimum of $10.50 per week, but at the moment we actually owe them more than they're still giving me as a benefit payment. At some point we will need to sort that out as well.

Here's the full breakdown of what I'm receiving this week and we're lucky we're getting anything at all:

As you can see, there is an extra $1.50 per week which goes towards the doctor visits I'm required to make so they can assess if I still qualify as long-term disabled, and then there's the Winter Energy Payment which they're thankfully paying at the couples rate. It's just one of the government initiatives that benefits everyone living in New Zealand. For the above calculations I did not include the Winter Energy Payment since it's not technically a benefit. For the other half of the year it doesn't apply at all.

So this has been my explanation of our finances. Whether or not my partner is working I'm budgeting on a single person's income, either mine as a beneficiary, or my partner's as an employee.

Some extra notes:

• Once again, our situation is unique because my partner isn't a New Zealand resident or citizen and I'm qualified as long-term disabled. This isn't supposed to be about how fair or unfair the system is. This is just some facts about our situation. We are actually very fortunate.
• Our rent is unusually and considerably lower than market rates. This was mostly thanks to my dad, and the continuing kindness of our landlord. However, our rent could be justifiably increased at any time and I fully expect it to be.
• We have an arrangement where our internet is currently free. Again thanks to my dad and something that could change at any moment, but that saves us a LOT compared to most people's situations.
• We have cash reserves that are not disclosed, but they're cash reserves because mostly they are the amounts of donations people have given us for specific reasons, like helping with the fees for my partner's Visa applications. When people give me a resource I'm extra careful with it and always keep my word on how I'll spend it, just like I have always paid people back when I've promised to.
• I'm a full-time student this year but I'm allowed to do this on my benefit and the study course I'm on is free for me as a New Zealand citizen. When I complete it, I'll have a Business Management certificate and a qualification in Project Management. This is part of my latest attempt to start a business that I'm capable of doing so I can get out of this situation of being disabled. As my own boss I can manage which jobs I accept and do work as I'm able instead of failing to meet the expectations of an employer whenever I become mentally unwell.

So what are the two of us living on? I'm going to share what I received weekly from the government going back to February. Believe me, I am incredibly grateful for this system and I just want to reiterate I'm not complaining here. I just want people to understand how well I've been doing with the resources we have. Yes, occasionally the numbers below were supplemented with side income (which I do declare to IRD and pay tax on, just by the way) and my partner's previous part-time work back in February/March, but for the most part what you see is what we had to work with!

How we get by:

• My awesome budgeting skills! Well, maybe not. There have been times where we've only survived thanks to luck and the generosity of others. If we didn't have cheaper rent we'd be in a lot more trouble.
• Eating frugally! I can feed the both of us very cheaply with things like rice noodle soup, casseroles, and congee when we need to. In between we use half-price food vouchers, discount coupons, and...
• Credit card debt! Yep, thanks to my $1,000 credit limit we have some leeway when those extra big expenses hit us, like $500 of car repairs. Gives us time to get back to eating cheaply and finding other income or costs to cut and makes sure we can always still buy groceries even if we don't technically have enough.
• Shopping around! I'm always looking for better deals and tweaking our expenditure.
• Sharing! We get products we can both use instead of getting our own, for example shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and toothpaste. No, we don't share deodorant or toothbrushes or razors. We're not quite that desperate!
• Not spending! We treat ourselves sometimes with better versions of the necessities, especially food, but things like clothes, new tech, media subscriptions, gifts for friends, and even haircuts are kind of luxury items for us that tend to fall by the wayside. The last time we bought new clothes was so we'd have nice things to wear to my dad's funeral. I even have reusable pads for those months where I can't really afford to be female.

Things other people might say we could do better:

• Not have pets? One cat and seven ducks costs us about $30 per week in total plus the ducks lay eggs.
• Grow your own food? We do, as much as we can, though the ducks actually make having a garden very difficult nearly impossible.
• Stop paying for insurance? Nope, this avenue has been thoroughly explored. The insurances we still have are the ones that are important to us.
• Live somewhere cheaper? Not actually even remotely possible with the deal we already have.
• Don't hire/purchase things you don't need? This one was a trick! We don't do hire/purchases ever. If we can't afford it, we don't get it, and it means that other than the credit card we really don't have any debt to worry about. My last hire/purchases were my washing machine and clothes drier. Both were fully paid off years ago. We don't even have a TV.
• Save more power? We run two electric heaters almost full-time. We also have an electric blanket and a dehumidifier that we use freely. During the summer my power company lets me pay extra, and this goes towards alleviating our higher winter bills and keeps us to budget. But I won't compromise on being warm. Being cold hurts me and makes me sick.
• Try not being poor? Yep, we're working on it, rather literally in fact. I've already cut down on all our subscriptions, I know how to feed two people on less than $30 a week (or half a cup of rice and a stock cube per day), and we usually entertain ourselves with games we've already purchased instead of buying new things. I'm pretty much a budgeting expert at this point.

So there you have it. This is why we haven't been buying art this year, why I've been asking for help with things lately, and why I'm always so incredibly, overwhelmingly grateful whenever someone trusts me to look after their home and pets, or donates or contributes to us financially either directly or through Twitch. I seriously couldn't do it without the generosity of others.

I also want people to know that this isn't pity-seeking or a cry for help. When I need help, I ask. Otherwise we manage fine and we always consider our expenditure and budget to fit in some of the good things in life, like coffee or dinner out with friends, or going to an event for date night, or getting the occasional takeaways. While we are grateful when others are generous towards us, and sorry that we can't always be generous in return, we're never in a position where we can't at least take care of ourselves.

Special thanks to my partner who travelled across the world to be with me, who never makes me feel like I'm not good enough even though I have so little to offer him, never makes me feel like I'm not worth taking care of, works hard, trusts me to manage our resources, and believes me when I say that things will get better!