Latest news with #IRD
LeMonde
a day ago
- Climate
- LeMonde
Fires in France: 'Agricultural fires, previously overlooked, are now drawing public authorities' attention'
In Istres, located in southern France, it took fifty firefighters to extinguish a grassland fire on Thursday, July 24. The roughly 500 agricultural fires that occur in France each year mostly affect standing cereal crops or the stubble left after harvest. In July, amid drought caused by the early summer heatwave and lack of rainfall, a series of fires broke out during the harvest in Haute-Loire (45 hectares of wheat burned after a spark from a combine harvester), in Côtes d'Armor, and in Ardèche. This phenomenon often goes unnoticed, even though it poses a risk to harvests and raises concerns about the potential for larger blazes. Florent Mouillot, an ecologist at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), along with colleagues Lilian Vallet and Jean-Marc Ourcival, carried out the first exploratory scientific work on this little-studied topic and presented their findings in Coimbra, Portugal, at the 2022 International Conference on Forest Fires. There are no official statistics and no agency in charge of collecting this information... Together with your two IRD colleagues, you are the first to take an interest in agricultural fires in France. What overall picture have you drawn from this work?
The Spinoff
7 days ago
- Business
- The Spinoff
Rainbow charity Outline in limbo as ‘questionable financial practices' alleged
Insolvency is flagged as a risk in an Outline annual report that suggests the possibility that 'unsupervised recklessness' – including $100,000 of undocumented credit card transactions – has led to serious financial problems. The 'dire' state of Outline's books has been laid bare ahead of its annual general meeting tonight, with its board revealing insolvency is a risk. The rainbow mental health organisation's annual report, released to Outline members ahead of tonight's AGM, paints a picture of 'questionable financial practices' and 'limited transparency', with an IRD debt repayment plan not adhered to, a yet-to-be-completed financial audit finding undocumented transactions, including 'un-provenanced credit card transactions worth circa $100,000', and auditors questioning 'the volume and usage of international travel expenditures'. Outline provides phone and online support services for rainbow communities across Aotearoa, as well as in-person support groups in Auckland. A widely respected charitable organisation, according to its annual report it has conducted more than 3,000 online chats and phone calls in the latest financial year, as well as providing 'everything from emotional support to letters of advocacy, food parcels, and clothing' to trans clients in a time of heightened transphobia. While an increase in staff numbers and a reduction in funding opportunities put pressure on cash flow at the organisation, 'a lack of controls and policy' is a recurring theme in the report. The charity ended the 2024/25 financial year with a $186,000 deficit, after income of just over $589,000, and 'no significant financial reserves'. The 2025/26 draft budget forecasts a $129,000 loss, 'with our current cash reserves due to be depleted in September 2025'. As of Tuesday this week, Outline was 'unable to secure assurance from an auditor that we have sufficient reserves and income to be a going concern in 2025', according to the report. This means 'we are at risk of trading while insolvent, which places us in breach of the Charities Act and the Incorporated Societies Act. If we do not balance our budget through a combination of additional income and reduced expenditure, we will be operating illegally.' 'The picture narrated above and illustrated by the attached profit and loss and draft budget is dire,' concludes the financial report section of the annual report. 'It has been caused by unsupervised recklessness. Damage limitation was made difficult by the inexperience of the board and by a lack of timely decisions but was improved following the chief executive's decision to resign,' it continues. Emmaline Pickering-Martin stood down as CEO of Outline in May 2025, after 16 months in the role. On December 6, 2024, Outline had announced it was at risk of closing permanently and launched a fundraising campaign to help it stay afloat. 'The government's attacks on Rainbow communities are hitting hard, and Outline is no exception,' said an Outline post on social media. 'Our funding is drying up while the need for our services grows every day.' In a LinkedIn post on December 12, Pickering-Martin wrote that she was 'beyond disgusted and angry and hugely hurt' by a response from Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ, on behalf of mental health minister Matt Doocey, declining the organisation's plea for more financial support. Several months later, Pickering-Martin posted about requests for funding being turned down by non-government organisations: 'After having hui after hui to get us to tailor our application to explain how dire our situation is … and still … GOOD LUCK AFTER 50 YEARS ENJOY CLOSING THE DOORS… That's essentially what every single email says. Sorry we can't help you Brown Org. Sorry we can't help you Brown CEO but if you were just like the old CEO Claire (read: young pākehā who was kind and quiet and did exactly what we said the way we said it) if you were just like her … we'd be more likely to fund you. At this point EVERY SINGLE DECLINE FEELS PERSONAL,' she wrote. In a separate post announcing her resignation in May 2025, Pickering-Martin said she had encountered 'Pākehā censorship', despite 'having the best board members and bosses anyone could ever ask for'. In the annual report, board co-chair Shane Kelly said while the public donation campaign 'provided valuable short-term support, it was initiated without full board oversight and exposed gaps in internal coordination'. This became an ongoing problem, with the six-member board experiencing 'sustained challenges in maintaining oversight and internal communications', wrote Kelly, whose co-chair Grace Abott left the board in February 2025. 'Operating at reduced capacity and with limited up-to-date information, we were not always able to meet our governance expectations as required. Delays and limited transparency in financial reporting and coordination made it harder to respond in an effective and timely manner.' Outline began the financial year with nine staff and now has five, as well as a network of more than 60 volunteers who operate its phone and chat lines. Its wage bill for the 2024/25 year was $505,000, peaking at nearly $12,000 per week in December 2024 and reducing to $4,500 by June 2025. 'Our financial position is such that further staff reductions are pivotal for financial survival,' said the annual report. After the wage bill, the next biggest chunk of the organisation's $777,000 outgoings were koha at $57,000 and general expenses at $27,000, with $24,000 spent on national travel, $17,000 on hauora (health), $17,000 on rent, $16,500 on professional development and $15,500 on international travel, according to the annual report. 'The discretionary nature of most of the largest categories of spend in the financial year signals a lack of controls and policy in the organisation,' it said. Other concerns raised in the report included an outstanding debt to Inland Revenue of more than $65,000 and a repayment plan that was agreed but 'not maintained'. Separately, a third party had contracted the organisation to provide services and had begun making payments to Outline in the 2024/25 financial year. The money was spent before the work commenced, according to the report. The largest portion of Outline's $589,000 income was donations totalling just over $200,000, with non-government grants contributing over $176,000 and government grants over $77,000. Its annual report thanks 16 major funders, including The Tindall Foundation, Rātā Foundation, Le Va, Sweat with Pride and the One Percent Collective, as well as Te Whatu Ora, Hāpai Te Hauora and the Lottery Grants Board. After Pickering-Martin's departure, the board sought legal advice 'to clarify its responsibilities and ensure appropriate next steps', Kelly said in the report. The board then assumed interim leadership and established weekly board meetings, and 'worked with staff to start to reduce expenditure [and] develop new revenue pathways'. First quarter costs have reduced by 87%, 'due largely to the commitment and effort of our remaining staff', who are 'showing grace and patience as the board has struggled to retain control over costs'. It added: 'Staff have made significant sacrifices during the last financial year, while also being unwillingly exposed to questionable practices that require investigation to ensure we maintain regulatory credibility as an organisation.'
NZ Herald
20-07-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
How you can financially get through and recover from divorce
'Bite your tongue and show grace, because the more you argue and bicker, it can just take a lot longer - and you can't move on. The longer things linger, the more negative and expensive it gets.' Palman says you can minimise legal fees by agreeing as much as possible up front - and only venting to close friends. 'Keep it efficient with your lawyer.' She says the first step is to understand your joint assets and liabilities. 'I sometimes see a person coming to see me for an initial consultation and I'll say to them, 'what are you expecting to leave with?' and they have no idea the value of the house, the value of the mortgage ... the other party's KiwiSaver balance'. Knowing those numbers at the date of separation is important, as it can help protect you from losing out if one party goes on a spending spree. 'Then you've got some sort of proof that you know that person incurred those transactions after that date, and that wasn't in relation to anything to do with you, so you've got a bit of a chance maybe of that being evened up in the washup'. When children are involved, Palman says there are tools to help calculate what child support payments might be involved, including a calculator on the IRD website. Where one party earns significantly less than the other, it's worth exploring spousal maintenance. 'It's designed to help them get back on their feet over a short period of time. For myself personally, it was a period of two years.' It's also important to update your will and insurance, she says, which can be done very quickly via your lawyer and insurance broker. Despite the emotional and financial upheaval, Palman says there's opportunity on the other side of divorce. 'Even though it's a terrible thing that you've been through - hey, what a beautiful opportunity to design your life moving forward.' Listen to the full episode of The Prosperity Project for more advice on the financial cost of divorce. The podcast is hosted by Nadine Higgins, an experienced broadcaster and a financial adviser at Enable Me. You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are released every Monday.
Otago Daily Times
20-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Will changes to Working for Families leave people worse off?
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ An organisation representing financial mentors around the country is worried that proposed changes to the Working for Families scheme could leave some families worse off. As part of the Budget, the government said it would look at options to help avoid the issue of Working for Families debt. In the 2022 year, only 24 percent of households receiving weekly or fortnightly Working for Families payments and who were squared up by IRD at the end of the tax year had received the right amount of money. People who earned more than expected can end up with an overpayment debt that that they struggle to pay back. There is almost $300 million owed in Working for Families debt. A discussion document, on which submissions were sought, said the government's current thinking was that a quarterly assessment of Working for Families eligibility could strike the right balance between responsiveness, certainty and recipient effort. This would adjust what people were paid much more frequently. But Fleur Howard, chief executive of FinCap, said in a submission in response that she was worried that some families could be left without enough money. A shorter quarterly assessment period would be an improvement, she said, but it needed to be refined. "Aspects of the proposed design appear to suit some whānau situations better than others. We are concerned that in its current state, this design would have a disproportionally negative impact on those who are already experiencing financial instability due to more fluctuations in payment amount." She said FinCap's internal data showed most financial mentor clients had a weekly budget deficit even after they had received help. "More often than not, this deficit is due to whānau trying to pay for essentials, and commonly going into debt to do so. "This, among other markers, points to the fact that government support is not currently adequate to cover living expenses. We have concerns that some of the proposed changes would exacerbate income inadequacy in certain scenarios, particularly for whānau who need that money week to week." She said an example used in the discussion document, outlining a situation where a woman on the sole parent benefit went into additional work for a short period of time, highlighted a potentially unacceptable outcome. In that case, the woman's Working for Families credits would be reduced by $130 a week for the quarter after her temporary work, even though she was no longer in work, because the calculation was based on the higher income from the previous quarter. "We can see that the 'lagged income' mechanism makes sense from the perspective of achieving accuracy, however the potential for a decreased payment below what a whānau is entitled to poses real risk for wellbeing and social participation. "There is also a real concern over the dynamic whereby a quarterly period of higher income followed by a quarterly period of low income would see increased hardship within the low-income period, due to those payments reflecting the past higher income. "While this could be squared up during the end of year process, our data tells us that most whānau living week to week need that money as part of their weekly payments." Howard said mentors were also concerned something similar could happen if someone lost a job and went on the benefit, because their reduced income would not show up in the Working for Families calculation for another quarter. "Whānau need every cent they are entitled to in a timely manner when events such as job loss occur." A solution could be for the quarterly assessment period to look forward, rather than backwards, she said.
Otago Daily Times
20-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Will Working for Families changes leave people worse off?
By Susan Edmunds of RNZ An organisation representing financial mentors around the country is worried that proposed changes to the Working for Families scheme could leave some families worse off. As part of the Budget, the government said it would look at options to help avoid the issue of Working for Families debt. In the 2022 year, only 24 percent of households receiving weekly or fortnightly Working for Families payments and who were squared up by IRD at the end of the tax year had received the right amount of money. People who earned more than expected can end up with an overpayment debt that that they struggle to pay back. There is almost $300 million owed in Working for Families debt. A discussion document, on which submissions were sought, said the government's current thinking was that a quarterly assessment of Working for Families eligibility could strike the right balance between responsiveness, certainty and recipient effort. This would adjust what people were paid much more frequently. But Fleur Howard, chief executive of FinCap, said in a submission in response that she was worried that some families could be left without enough money. A shorter quarterly assessment period would be an improvement, she said, but it needed to be refined. "Aspects of the proposed design appear to suit some whānau situations better than others. We are concerned that in its current state, this design would have a disproportionally negative impact on those who are already experiencing financial instability due to more fluctuations in payment amount." She said FinCap's internal data showed most financial mentor clients had a weekly budget deficit even after they had received help. "More often than not, this deficit is due to whānau trying to pay for essentials, and commonly going into debt to do so. "This, among other markers, points to the fact that government support is not currently adequate to cover living expenses. We have concerns that some of the proposed changes would exacerbate income inadequacy in certain scenarios, particularly for whānau who need that money week to week." She said an example used in the discussion document, outlining a situation where a woman on the sole parent benefit went into additional work for a short period of time, highlighted a potentially unacceptable outcome. In that case, the woman's Working for Families credits would be reduced by $130 a week for the quarter after her temporary work, even though she was no longer in work, because the calculation was based on the higher income from the previous quarter. "We can see that the 'lagged income' mechanism makes sense from the perspective of achieving accuracy, however the potential for a decreased payment below what a whānau is entitled to poses real risk for wellbeing and social participation. "There is also a real concern over the dynamic whereby a quarterly period of higher income followed by a quarterly period of low income would see increased hardship within the low-income period, due to those payments reflecting the past higher income. "While this could be squared up during the end of year process, our data tells us that most whānau living week to week need that money as part of their weekly payments." Howard said mentors were also concerned something similar could happen if someone lost a job and went on the benefit, because their reduced income would not show up in the Working for Families calculation for another quarter. "Whānau need every cent they are entitled to in a timely manner when events such as job loss occur." A solution could be for the quarterly assessment period to look forward, rather than backwards, she said.
