Funding cut silences beneficiaries' union

Auckland's Combined Beneficiaries Union has lost its Government funding, leaving unemployed Aucklanders south of the Harbour Bridge without a state-supported advocate despite the deepening recession.

The union's grant of $66,000 a year was cancelled in April because of what Social Development Ministry client advocacy and review manager Zoe Griffiths said were "serious concerns with its financial management".

She said an independent audit by Deloittes found the union showed "poor judgment in using public funds in reimbursing private expenditure".

The decision means that the only two beneficiary advocates in Auckland still funded by the ministry's $260,000-a-year Citizens Support Fund (CSF) are north of the harbour - Homebuilders Family Services in Warkworth and the Beneficiaries Advocacy and Information Service at Glenfield.

Tamaki Ki Raro Trust in Mangere also advocates for beneficiaries using funding from Child, Youth and Family Services but has not applied for CSF funding.

The CSF also part-funds advocates in Gisborne, Napier, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Wellington, Nelson and Invercargill, but large areas of the country have no funded services.

The Auckland region was well serviced by People's Centres in central Auckland, Mangere and Manurewa in the 1990s but they all pulled out of advocacy work in about 2002 for financial reasons. All are now purely health services.

Helen Capel, who was president of the Combined Beneficiaries Union for 10 years until 2007, said the problems at the union began in that year when she suspended long-serving advocate Mike Dark after finding that he had claimed expenses for personal services including dental work, dry cleaning and a laptop.

"He went to the board and had a meeting at his neighbour's place, and they threw me out," she said.

Mr Dark, who is now the union's sole paid employee on a wage of $329 a week, said the expenses were all approved by the board and were needed for his work representing beneficiaries at benefit review committee and tribunal hearings.

"My teeth were falling out. I couldn't work because I couldn't afford to get my teeth done," he said.

Board chairman Roger Brookes said the board "was always looking for a way to reimburse Mike" because he worked long hours for such minimal pay.

"The board could never reimburse Mike enough," he said.

Mr Dark said the union had accepted all the recommendations in the Deloittes report and now paid all expense claims by cheque to provide an audit trail.

But he said the union ran into problems again last year when another official in the union allegedly made payments to himself.

This allegation was reported to police and the ASB Bank is investigating cheques that may have been fraudulent.

He said the union still received funding last year from the Lottery Grants Board and Community Organisations Grants Scheme but had been forced to shift into a smaller office in the Auckland Trade Union Centre and reduce paid staff from a peak of seven to one.

"We'll have our new audited report out within a month or so, which will show we're on a pretty much breadline existence," he said.

Wellington People's Centre benefit rights co-ordinator Kay Brereton said the union's reduced service had left "a real gap" in Auckland.

"We are getting quite a few calls from Auckland," she said.

VOICES FOR THE JOBLESS
* Combined Beneficiaries Union started 30 years ago by veteran activist Johnny Mitchell. Funding ended in April; organisation now run on shoestring.
* Unemployed Workers' Rights Centre started 1983 in Pitt St Methodist Church, later merged into People's Centres.
* People's Centres started in Auckland, Mangere and Manurewa in early 1990s. Advocacy work ended about 2002 due to financial problems.
* Only two advocates in Auckland are still funded: Homebuilders in Warkworth and Beneficiaries Advocacy and Information Service in Glenfield.