An examination of the service delivery of the Domestic Purposes Benefit

Abstract

This study sets out to examine the service delivery of the Domestic Purposes Benefit (DPB) in terms of policy and practice, and how the women recipients perceive the delivery in relation to their roles as mothers. Staff at Head Office, Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and Lower Hutt District Office, DSW were interviewed, with an emphasis on the policies relating to service delivery and their implementation into practice. Frontline staff identified areas of concern, and some of the constraints they experienced in their day to day work. The second aspect of this study was to establish how recipients of the Domestic Purposes Benefit experienced the delivery of service. Of particular interest was how this impacted on them as women and mothers. Little of the literature surveyed focused on the administration of the benefit for single parents. There is a paucity of information on single parent families as a group in New Zealand. This study shows some of the issues facing the Department of Social Welfare in its implementation of policy, given the training, workload, stress levels, and skills of their frontline staff. While the participants, had mainly positive dealings with the individual staff, their perception of the Department as an institution proved to be negative. Given the unpopular nature of the benefit, it is hardly surprising that the women felt ambiguous about receiving it. Whilst they were grateful for the support, all of them experienced guilt and feelings of shame and humiliation. This contributed to the erosion of the women's self-esteem and affected their ability to mother confidently. All the women felt pressured into being seen as 'supermother'. There is a positive flow on effect from staff training for frontline staff. To assist the implementation of policy into practice, there needs to be effective communication between Head Office and District Offices. There is a need for full information on entitlements to be given to women applying for the DPB. This information has to be specific and must also cover the wider issues facing single parents. An effective delivery of service would alleviate some of the difficulties that women in receipt of the DPB experience.