NCHENZ » DPB

We are asking for homeschooling to be considered mitigating circumstances

marianne — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:27:06 +0000

“From September 27, DPB claimants whose youngest child is six will have to be available to work at least 15 hours a week.

Failure to comply will see their benefit cut by half, but they will retain additional assistance.

Exemptions will be available for those in fulltime study or with mitigating circumstances such as special-needs children.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3498073/Unemployed-face-work-tests

We welcome your comments.
We are asking for homeschooling to be considered mitigating circumstances.

Please join us in emailing Paula Bennett . Her email address is paula.bennettmp@parliament.govt.nz

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Update

The reply from our email so far:

Hello Tarnya

The Hon Paula Bennett, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has asked me to thank you for your email.

Consideration is currently being given to the matters you raise and you may expect a reply at the Minister’s earliest opportunity.

Kind regards

Nicky Uriaro

Private Secretary, Office of Hon Paula Bennett

Minister for Social Development and Employment | Minister of Youth Affairs

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the email we sent:

Good Morning Paula Bennett

We ( National Council of Home Educators www.nchenz.org .nz) request thathomeschooling be considered as mitigating circumstances in regard to the work requirements for DPB claimants. We request that a home educating parent who holds, for their child/ren, an exemption from attendance at a public school also be issued an exemption from these work requirements.

We submit to you that a home educating parent is involved in full-time work, albeit unpaid.

“We understand that exemptions will be available for those in fulltime study or with mitigating circumstances such as special-needs children.”
from
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3498073/Unemployed-face-work-tests

Regards
Penny Bilton, Tarnya Burge Maddy Maxwell, Dawn Jones and Michelle Campbell
NCHENZ executive committee

www.nchenz.org .nz

DPB work requirements back on the agenda

Tarnya — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:01:02 +0000

“Solo parents will have to look for part-time work once their youngest child turns 6 or have their benefit halved.”

see National cracks the whip on beneficiaries.

A blogger wrote to Bennett regarding home education and DPB see

Will home educators on the dpb be required to find work?

It looks like it will be left to the discretion of the WINZ staff which I don’t find very encouraging at all.

Perhaps you would like to email or write to Paula Bennett ?

DPB work requirements (again)

marianne — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 02:03:31 +0000

At the beginning of the year the National Government cancelled changes to the work rules for the Domestic Purposes Benefit because of the recession. However Finance Minister Bill English was interviewed recently and said he wanted to tighten the welfare net ‘a bit’ see here and here, this includes “policies to send DPB mums out to work and allow beneficiaries to earn more are both back on the agenda as recession ends”.

Home educators have written to Paula Bennett on this issue in the past see here asking that home educating parents be exempted from these work requirements.

Links around the web

Tarnya — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:52:04 +0000

From New Zealand

Winz and Home schooling and the DPB
http://hef.org.nz/2009/home-schooling-and-winz-dpb-in-new-zealand/

Help in filling out an exemption:
http://hef.org.nz/category/applying-for-exemption/

Around the World
Click on the headings.www.khanacademy.org The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a high quality education to anyone, anywhere.
We have 800+ videos on YouTube covering everything from basic arithmetic and algebra to differential equations, physics, and finance which have been recorded by Salman Khan.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ Free on-line writing school
http://www.mes-english.com/ Printables – great helps for homeschooling: free flashcards, worksheets and handouts to match, free phonics cards, free ESL games, an international project exchange library, printable certificates, printable stickers and activities all ready for printing

http://www.urthemom.com/ Homeschool Planner and help with self teaching and mastery learning. She runs a Yahoo group called Raising Self-Learners 4 Life! (US based but open to New Zealanders) and a blog

http://www.celestiamotherlode.net/catalog/educational.php Astronomy. An excellent, free download open source program runs in planetariums… it is called Celestia. If your computer is not too old and your graphics card is more than 256K then this should work very well on your computer. This page will take you to the Educational version download, which has had activities programmed and documented for it. And, yes, those activities and worksheets are downloadable too. It pays to print out the overview to give you a starting point, and this will help you learn to navigate without too much overload. There is also an updated full version, and extra models and objects that can be uploaded – including spacecrafts from real life, and fiction ie. Star Wars, Star Trek.

http://www.livingjoyfully.ca Unschooling

Handbook of Nature Study available free online version http://www.archive.org/details/handbookofnature002506mbp
There is also a great blog with challenges/activities etc based on the book http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com

Sites to feed a hungry mind: list of sites that can be visited daily for students