Lies About New Zealand

From time to time I take to task those who peddle misinformation about New Zealand. Be careful I say, as the writers often have an agenda or are just plain stupid.

The latest example of this came to my attention through Twitter of all places. This is the offending website: http://www.nzpensionprotest.com/Home/the-fight/nz-pension-abuse-website

The arguments as put up by these people are confused and incomprehensible. What I was able to discern from them was they want to be able to double-dip in effect, that is, receive an overseas pension AND have their Kiwi partners also receive a single person pension in NZ as well; all the while living in the blissful harmony of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Err, but no you don't get to do that at all. For the record, NZ has one of the most broad and non-discriminatory pension schemes you'll find - anywhere. But one thing you cannot do is get paid more than others. Everyone who qualifies gets paid the same, singles get what other singles get, married the same as other married and so on. If a millionaire and single you get the same as homeless and single.

Now you may debate the sense of doing this and that would be fine, but what will never happen is a retired person getting paid while the pension income from overseas exceeds what is allowable.

[edit to add "who qualifies" after everyone, third line second to last paragraph]

A partner website of the above link with no contactable address and more of the same attacks, all apparently intended to damage New Zealand, can be found here: http://nzpensionabuse.org.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/index.html

[Essentially the above sites are fake news. The websites may sound legalistic in nature but they constitute propaganda and you have to wonder who is paying for it. Funnily enough a robust refutation of all their claims can be found hidden on their own website. This comes from a government official called Iona Holsted: >The Ministry of Social Development Does Not Raid Overseas Pensions<

Of importance in the above guidance from Holsted is the third paragraph starting with the words 'where a person's overseas pension is higher...' (ignore the underlining - the person who does that cannot comprehend what is written all that well).]

[Edit to add: All correspondence on this matter is now closed. Readers may guess that a successful and widely read blog like mine, read in literally every country of the world, receives a few dipsticks. Most of them are selling something. And they're often Asian. Nice try but they're just deleted. But this lot are the exception, they constantly contact with the same entitled bullshit, attacking New Zealand and me, all the while wanting a free lunch. Read the link you bludgers, the one from the Ministry of Social Development, Iona Holsted nails it. Stop looking for a free lunch, and stop attacking New Zealand.]