Advocating for a fair go

Getting in the door of Mangere Work and Income on the last afternoon of the 2014 Auckland Action Against Poverty Impact was almost impossible.

A small crowd of people were clustered around it hoping an advocate would be able to help them despite the announcement that AAAP had reached capacity.

Figures from the Ministry of Social Development show that 539 people with advocates met with Work and Income case officers over the three days, making it the biggest Impact event to date.

Janine Dowding, Acting National Commissioner, Ministry of Development says that the focus of the three days was “to ensure people were receiving their full and correct entitlement, and the majority of those checked showed people were receiving the right assistance.

“Only 24 per cent of people checked required small adjustments to their weekly supplementary assistance based on additional information provided at the interview.”

We spoke to Nadia Abu-Shanab, Oliver Christeller, Kirsty Fong and Joe Bradford to find out why they choose to work in support of beneficiaries and low income workers at this year’s AAAP Impact and learned how advocacy can be a form of direct action and political activism.