Dear Ethel,
Help! I had to go to my nana’s funeral up north and I now have absolutely no money left. I’ve already had to borrow money off mum to pay my rent this week, and she doesn’t have much money so I can’t ask for any more. I don’t even have any money for food and I’m hungry :(
I’m so sorry to hear that your nana passed away. To fix your immediate hunger issues, feel free to drop into OUSA Student Support at 5 Ethel B and pick yourself up a food pack. This is free and will give you at least a couple of days’ worth of food, including fruit and veg, which are important to keep your vitamins up to combat winter and tough times!
Other avenues are available to you as well. Studylink/WINZ have some money available through their “Special Needs — Essential” and “Special Needs — Emergency” grants. You can google these on their website to find out the criteria. Some of them are “non-recoverable’, i.e. you don’t have to pay them back, and some are “recoverable”, meaning you will have to pay them back over a period of time. If you want to find out more about these grants, you’ll need to make an appointment to go in and see someone about. You have to take a bank balance and a couple of other things in with you, but they’ll let you know exactly what you need.
I’m not sure how you got up north but if you flew via Air NZ, you might retrospectively qualify for a compassionate fare. You can check out the conditions for that here: www.airnewzealand.co.nz/compassionate-fares.
The university does have an emergency fund which you may have been able to access before flying up north. Unfortunately, they don’t give money retrospectively, but I thought I’d mention it here in case other students might qualify for the fund. It is for emergencies — unexpected events that leave you in financial trouble — not for general hardship (student allowance not stretching quite far enough).
Come and have a chat with one of our friendly advocates at 5 Ethel B to get some more ideas. I hope you have good friends, whanau and support to help you through the aftermath of bereavement. Whole lotta love ox