© Dean PurcellTania Wysocki is having to look at escort work to pay the childcare and transport bills.
A solo mum who wants to study so she can get off welfare says she has had to turn to prostitution to pay for childcare and transport to the course.
Tania Wysocki, a 38-year-old mother of two preschoolers at Paerata near Pukekohe, advertised herself on a website two weeks ago in a last-ditch effort to raise the money she needs for childcare when she starts a veterinary nursing course at Unitec in Mt Albert next week.
She wrote to Prime Minister John Key two days after Christmas saying she could see no other way to do the course, which she hopes will help her get off the domestic purposes benefit (DPB). Mr Key's office passed the letter on to Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, who has yet to respond.
Work and Income's Pukekohe office told Ms Wysocki in writing that she could get only nine hours a week of subsidised childcare for the fulltime course, plus a one-off $500 loan towards the weekly $72.20 cost of a 10-trip student train pass from Pukekohe to Mt Albert.
She may need at least 36 hours. "We regret the delay but she will be able to begin the academic year with the correct childcare subsidies," Ms Evans said.
But the subsidy will cover only part of Ms Wysocki's childcare fees, and the $500 loan falls far short of her transport costs for a year, so studying will still cost her about $113 a week more out of her own pocket than staying at home on the benefit.
Yesterday, after
Herald inquiries, Auckland regional social development commissioner Isabel Evans said Ms Wysocki had now provided further information and was actually entitled to up to 50 hours a week of subsidised childcare.
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See: Fiber Menace: The Truth About the Leading Role of Fiber in Diet Failure, Constipation, Hemorrhoids, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease, and Colon Cancer
and: GutSense