DonGould:networkn:Is the problem here that we're not properly looking after the our DPB parents?
You must be joking! Surely.
No, when compared to the help that Paul Bennett got, it seemed like a very valid question to me.
A lot of emphasis seems to be based on "This is what Paula Bennett got so it should be available to everyone". Whilst I am sympathetic to your thinking, it is also the past as a number things actually are. There has been a lot of change over the last 20-30 years, much of it needed, but also much of it emotional and not really thought through. If things were really better in the past should we just dial the clock back 100 years? That's disingenuous to your argument but it highlights my point in an extreme way.
However, seeing the type of people that Paula Bennett is, I somehow have the feeling that if she didn't have that support then she still would have "picked herself up" in a different way.
I genuinely believe we've never looked after our DPB parents well. It seems to be mainly "lets throw money at the problem and it'll go away". In the process we've allowed parents to abdicate personal responsibility and forget what the DPB was about in the first place. It was never intended to be a longterm "raise your child until they leave home" benefit.
So why don't we say "These are the skills you require to be a parent and a member of society and we'll help you get there". If they choose not to come along for the journey that is there choice.
And for those that say teaching parents how to look after their children will take too long and we need a solution now, then why even bother sending these kids to school, if teaching does indeed take too long. We send them to school because that is the better long term solution.
This is a problem that has been around too long for it to be fixed with a magic bullet. Consequently because it has been around so long any solution will need to be introduced in stages. Most people can't handle change. But to bury our heads in the sand and refuse to look at the greater problem because it is too hard makes for a tragedy.