A Canterbury teacher says her violent and alcoholic husband contributed to her ultimately stealing more than $30,000 through benefit fraud. The Tribunal accepted the offending was sustained and the "most serious kind". The woman said she hoped the Tribunal accepted that she had been living "under extreme stress and emotional and physical abuse when I lost my way". "I wanted to come off the benefit, but he told me if I did that the children would have nothing. The teacher was overpaid the unemployment benefit, disability allowance, accommodation supplement and food grants totalling $36,953.47.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 20, 2016 21:33 UTC