The Government's propaganda machine, describing people who claim their fair share of NZ Super on top of their contributory overseas pensions as double-dippers at the expense of the poor New Zealander who has never resided outside of the country, is working rather well. The reluctance of the media to report on the fight of pensioners who are subjected to the Direct Deduction Policy in an open and fair way, is another obstacle to spreading the truth. Uninformed, biased stories about the admittedly difficult issue do not contribute to more clarity either.

So the picture of greedy immigrants is drawn, totally ignoring the fact that more and more born and bred New Zealanders are affected by Sections 187-191 (formerly: Section 70). Tomorrow it could be you, or your son, or your daughter, or your grand-children who work overseas for a good number of years and then return to New Zealand to start a family or just because they feel homesick. Until 9 November 2020 their problem was that they just fell in love with someone who was entitled to an overseas pension. Since then, at least, New Zealanders are not punished any longer for loving the wrong person.

Once in the overseas pension deduction trap, the drama unfolds for Kiwi families who yesterday talked the Government's talk. They suddenly realise how the policy really works, and that this has nothing to do with greed and envy but simply with often huge monetary contributions made overseas, contributions no New Zealander has ever been forced to make back home.

You were never too old to be hit by the Spousal Provision

It has not been very long ago when happy Kiwi retirees who were on full New Zealand Superannuation for years suffered the shocks of their lives. Because love does not stop when you retire from work. What about a divorced or widowed Kiwi pensioner who decided to see the world after age 65, and met his or her soulmate in the USA, in Canada, in France or in Germany? Or he or she met a foreign tourist holidaying alone in New Zealand, and they fell in love?

You could bet that no such New Zealander had an idea of the existence of Sections 187-191 (formerly: Section 70) of the Social Security Act.

The two retirees moved in together in New Zealand or even married. A step they might have regretted very soon: if the new partner had a nice overseas pension, WINZ stopped the Kiwi's payment of NZ Super from one day to the next, or only paid a fraction of the full rate. Suddenly this New Zealander understood the meaning of Direct Deduction and Spousal Provision. It could hit any New Zealander, and he or she was not - and will not be - treated any better than an immigrant. And it has nothing to do with the contributions to the New Zealand tax base and society either. Suddenly all this does not count anymore.

Therefore the first step of our fight is to share all the information we have collected over the years, and to tell people who are willing to look into the issue how it really is. We show you the other side, the true facts behind the Government's polemic approach, giving uninformed Kiwis the impression all we want is to ruin the state.

New Zealand should live up to its image

It is important to us to give you the unbiased views of the retirement experts of the University of Auckland who are above any doubt of being biased towards one or the other side. They have done an incredible lot of research over many years and urge the Government to review and reform the pension system. Even they say that the Government's policy is inconclusive, unfair, and applied at random, and that changes are required to restore New Zealand's international credibility and reputation.

Launching this website was only a start. More action was and is needed - and we have worked hard on several initiatives and helped and listened to hundreds of current and future pensioners affected by the pension rip-off. We can pride ourselves of having contributed significantly to the end of the Spousal Provision on 9 November 2020. The next step is so much harder.

If you feel strongly about the issue, contact the New Zealand government, local MPs and write letters to the editor of newspapers and magazines. Our goal is to create a unified front against the injustice that is the Direct Deduction Policy, and fight it more efficiently. Start by writing letters and emails to editors and parliamentarians, make your protest being noticed and heard. Tell people that not everything in New Zealand is green and clean or paradise-like, and that not all people are nice and friendly, especially if they are parliamentarians or the chief executive at the Ministry of Social Development.

New Zealand should have higher ambitions than only to pretend to be a country of fairness and justice. It has to live up to the image it presents to the world.

Not every fight in the capital is against the Government...