Is StudyLink enough for students to live on? All signs point to no.
Illustration: Tallulah Farrar
As many of us know, StudyLink is not enough to live a healthy, thriving and balanced life while studying. Because of this, many students face the impossible choice of working or starving, often spending hours upon hours of energy on work that does not relate to their studies simply so they can get by. Grace and James are two Massey students who’ve had to work to afford their studies. They spoke to Massive on their struggles balancing their uni, work and social lives.
James is a fourth year Creative Media Production student working two jobs on top of his study. He talked about how he started work initially while living at home to afford food and travel to and from university. He jokingly said, "when I moved out, rent became a bit more expensive. That's when I looked into getting a second job". Between two jobs and fourth year study, he struggled to fit both work and university into his life without burning out. "I have my classes and my lectures, and then I have to go straight to work where I spend several hours working with kids, and my mind gets frayed. Then I come home from work, and I'm expected to recount my notes or do homework that's hard to do after you're exhausted from a day's work." This model of working to afford study is unsustainable for so many students and straining on many of the rest. "It's just the time commitment. You're spending so much time just splitting your attention.”
James said he found the balance between working and learning anxiety-inducing and stressful, especially as his second job involved teaching a class. "It splits your brain, having to learn how to teach and learn [the material] then do everything you have to do for uni and assignments.” James said there are a lot of “sleepless nights” because of the pressure. "There have been times where I just don't have enough money to get through the week, so I pick up some extra shifts and, as a result, I don't go to some classes. And at that point it's survival or education."
For James, balancing work and university is hard enough, but finding the time for a social life is another matter entirely. "I feel like everyone wants to maintain friendships, get an education and have money to live. [My] first priority is money so I can afford things like basic necessities, food, water, rent. And then I'd like to have an education so in the future I can afford my basic necessities, so that's second priority. And then there's just social life which you have to just slot in there somewhere in the midst of all of that." Having the time and energy to interact with friends is "really important for your mental health", almost on par with things like being able to afford food and rent. He talks to the irony of working so hard to afford the basic necessities, along with keeping up with study means "you don't have the time to hang out with your friends, and your mental health goes [he gestures wildly, and somewhat maniacally] wOoOoOoOo".
Grace is a fourth year Design student who has worked over her study, but it caused intrusive health problems. She had to drop her employment and is now just getting by on her StudyLink every week. She says that during her year of work she found that she “really had no time to study at all... I was a shell of a human being. I barely had time to sleep, like I'd get home at God knows what hour in the morning, usually around 7am and then sleep for four hours and then get up and go to uni." She spent about 10 months of her second year doing shift work at irregular times, often nights, on top of her full-time study. Not only did it impact her eating and sleeping, but it also directly affected her health to the point of hospitalisation. "That year that I was working while studying, I ended up getting tonsillitis four times and ended the year with glandular fever," Grace recalled, telling me she quit soon after. Ever since then, she’s been scraping by week by week on StudyLink.
When asked about her weekly spending, Grace said, "at my last flat... I paid $185 in rent per week, and bills were usually $20-30 per week." On a budget of $239 a week, spending upwards of $205 on rent and bills alone doesn't leave enough for the basics. Between food and fuel, there was often compromise. "I'd have to choose between whether I was going to top up on fuel or top up on food, and obviously, fuel would be my priority because that's my way of getting into uni." Her restricted budget has been almost as imposing as part-time work. "I've missed uni because I haven't been able to afford to go to a doctor. I haven't been able to afford fuel sometimes, and the rest of the time, I was just really run down."
Besides these obviously unsustainable and unhealthy means to survive, Grace has also had to struggle with the social and mental burdens that accompany poverty. She told Massive, "it's been a pretty big fucking catalyst for my depression but especially my anxiety. It's made me stress where I'll be able to get my next meal from. Often on a day or week to week basis, and you know it's bad enough to skip meals and stuff but to have the extra stress about it, um, is pretty terrifying and pretty gruelling." As someone in her fourth and final year of university, she’s found that financial stress has impacted her study and social life. She said she hasn't had the freedom to buy things she wants, let alone "going out on the town for a weekend. I haven't done that in a long, long time."
Both Grace and James are classic examples of the impossible choice students are forced to make. Despite different incomes and experiences, they agree that StudyLink should offer more to students for their day to day lives. Grace said, "I believe that it should sort of reflect the renter's market at least... especially in Wellington and Auckland, where students have to pay a lot more for rent." Both think it should be "at least $50 more," and Grace suggesting that "another 100 would probably be more realistic".
We all know that StudyLink is a measly amount to survive, let alone thrive on. With boomers telling students left, right and centre, 'these are the best years of your life', there's a bit of resentment when many of us can't even afford the basics. Then, there's the bitch of a follow-up 'why don't you get a job then?' to which many of us sigh. Whether you're working and exhausted or unemployed and depressed, there doesn't seem to be a healthy way to afford the basics without overexerting yourself. Something needs to change; the Government needs pull their heads out of their asses and give us enough to live on. But in the meantime, settle into your diet of ramen and tears; at least you'll own a house one day... right? Right???