marsden_online (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
marsden_online) wrote2012-02-18 09:26 am
marsden_online) wrote2012-02-18 09:26 am
Show me the numbers / A comparison of circumstance
Update 21-02-2102 - story clarifying gross vs net appears in the Herald. Win :)
Minister spells out $43,000 'salary' claim for solo mum
~~~
"Gone all the way to the media" story of the week.
Mum: Prostitution to pay for studies
Mum's $43,000 benefit 'sufficient'
From the second (more recent) story
The first story includes a breakdown of what I am assuming is Ms Wysoki's personal finances, but could easily be in part publicly available benefit entitlement information. It is given as weekly but simple multiplication gives ~$37,630 a year. Which using the tax calculator at IRD is about right for a -gross- salary of $43,000, but nowhere near as much money -to spend- as the article repeatedly implies.
I felt sufficiently strongly about this misrepresentation that I sent an email to the "author" of the article about it.
And how much money would be sufficient? I can only work from my own very different situation. Looking at my 2011 accounts and stripping out business and house-related related expenses
- but not mortgage payments as I noted they approximate what Ms Wysocki spends on rent
my Christchurch based, single-white-male, frugal but comfortable, healthy, dwelling-in-middle-class-privileged self still goes through $600-700 a week*. I think Ms Wysocki is doing bloody well as a single mother with two small children on a bit over $700 per week in the upper-north-island.
*1 I could halve this for a while if I had to just by stopping voluntary payments on the mortgage. Not a luxury available to Ms Wysocki with her rent. There are other things I could cut back on as well - moving from "frugal but comfortable" to just "frugal".
*2 Ok the utility bills are for two but they only come to about $60 a week - how much of a small child would you like to equate my flatmate to? :p
~~~
"You keep using those numbers. I do not think they are as big as you think they are." (apol. Inigo)
Minister spells out $43,000 'salary' claim for solo mum
~~~
"Gone all the way to the media" story of the week.
Mum: Prostitution to pay for studies
Mum's $43,000 benefit 'sufficient'
From the second (more recent) story
A domestic purposes beneficiary who is considering prostitution to pay for childcare and transport costs to attend a Unitec study course receives the equivalent of a $43,000 salary a year, Associate Social Development Minister Chester Borrows told Parliament yesterday.
...
"I think most New Zealanders would find that an equivalent salary of $43,000 is sufficient, or at least reasonable," Mr Borrows said.
The first story includes a breakdown of what I am assuming is Ms Wysoki's personal finances, but could easily be in part publicly available benefit entitlement information. It is given as weekly but simple multiplication gives ~$37,630 a year. Which using the tax calculator at IRD is about right for a -gross- salary of $43,000, but nowhere near as much money -to spend- as the article repeatedly implies.
I felt sufficiently strongly about this misrepresentation that I sent an email to the "author" of the article about it.
And how much money would be sufficient? I can only work from my own very different situation. Looking at my 2011 accounts and stripping out business and house-related related expenses
- but not mortgage payments as I noted they approximate what Ms Wysocki spends on rent
my Christchurch based, single-white-male, frugal but comfortable, healthy, dwelling-in-middle-class-privileged self still goes through $600-700 a week*. I think Ms Wysocki is doing bloody well as a single mother with two small children on a bit over $700 per week in the upper-north-island.
*1 I could halve this for a while if I had to just by stopping voluntary payments on the mortgage. Not a luxury available to Ms Wysocki with her rent. There are other things I could cut back on as well - moving from "frugal but comfortable" to just "frugal".
*2 Ok the utility bills are for two but they only come to about $60 a week - how much of a small child would you like to equate my flatmate to? :p
~~~
"You keep using those numbers. I do not think they are as big as you think they are." (apol. Inigo)
no subject