Again media won’t give us enough info

Stuff reports:

The last time there was fresh produce on the table was more than two years ago.

After covering her basic expenses, Lynlie Beazley survives on just $22 per week and sometimes she sleeps on an empty stomach. 

The west Auckland resident described herself as the “face of poverty” in the country. 

“I don’t know how I live each day.”

Beazley said she would not be able to survive without food parcels from The Salvation Army.

She is one of a growing number of people knocking on the charity’s door for help. 

Her weekly benefit was about $236, but she only had $22 after rent, expenses, and hire purchase payments.    

Beazley, a Housing NZ tenant, said this was enough for two bottles of milk, three loaves of bread and a tray of eggs.

It is frustrating that media continue to do pimping poverty stories yet fail to provide information that allows readers to form any independent conclusions.

Ms Beazley appears to be on a Jobseeker benefit. We are not given any information on how long she has been on it, and has she tried to gain work. It is possible she has a disability or sickness and can’t work but again we don’t know. And a Supported Living benefit would be higher than that.

Here’s what we do know:

• Benefit $236
• Rent $59
• Food $22
• Other expenses $155

She does not have a car and walks so the other expenses are not transport. There is reference to hire purchase and a $1,000 loan but repayments on that would be just $20 a week or so to pay back over a year.

Again we don’t have enough information to reach any independent conclusions. To me it seems out of whack to spend $155 on other expenses and $22 on food. Electricity would not be that high. Now there could well be a very good reason why her non food expenses are so high but again the reporter has not told us enough.

UPDATE: It turns out Ms Beazley has 32 criminal convictions – information the original story failed to include. Even more of a fail for the media.