The Prime Minister and Social Development Minister have offered an apology to thousands of pensioners who did not receive their Winter Energy Payment this year, after an error in a law change meant people who were supposed to get the payment missed out.
By Giles Dexter of RNZ
The law change, passed under urgency last year, has meant beneficiaries receiving certain payments such as the Supported Living Payment, Accommodation Supplement, and Disability Allowance have had to re-confirm their circumstances at least once every 52 weeks, to confirm whether they are still eligible.
However, the Winter Energy Payment, which is supposed to be automatic for superannuitants, veterans, and people receiving a main benefit, were not excluded from the legislation, meaning some people who would have expected to receive the payment did not.
Labour said it is the consequence of rushed legislation, but Social Development Minister Louise Upston is blaming it on a policy omission.
The Post has reported the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) had started to receive complaints, with the ministry working around the clock to correct the error and ensure the correct amounts were backpaid.
The Ministry of Social Development said between May 1 and August 7, a total of 14,862 superannuitants and veterans had their Winter Energy Payments affected.
On August 13, the ministry completed a review to identify clients whose payments were still suspended or cancelled. The review identified approximately 4000 to 6000 requiring remediation.
'Unacceptable and appalling'
As of Saturday morning, all payments had been resumed and backdated, but Upston accepted it was "unacceptable" and "appalling", and has apologised.
"The law requires a review, a review of circumstances, and unfortunately, MSD made an omission in excluding the Winter Energy Payment. It should never have been included in this because there is no means testing for superannuitants. It's something that they are entitled to get. So it was a mistake, a significant one that I'm very, very frustrated about."
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon also said the error was unacceptable, but blamed it on an IT issue instead of the law change.
"I am sorry that it happened, but what I'm interested in is making sure people get their money as quickly as possible, and then we'll go out and work out what happened and make sure there's IT fixes," he said.
But Upston said it was "an omission in policy that has then meant an omission in legislation", and has asked MSD for more details.
"I found out about it on Thursday night. MSD have worked at pace to resolve this, I'm not satisfied yet that I have all of the material and information I need, but I am confident that those who have not received the payments now have, and I'm confident that we have the legal ability to do that because there has been a review undertaken, and that's how we have managed to make the payments that needed to be made."
Luxon has promised an "after-action review" into the matter, while Upston will need to return to the House to fix the law.
MSD chief apologises to minister
Shannon Soughtton, MSD's group general manager of service delivery, said the ministry had identified that some people getting Super or the Veteran's pension had their Winter Energy Payment stopped when it should not have been.
This had affected people who were receiving other payments, such as the Disability Allowance or Accommodation Supplement, and had been recently required to confirm their circumstances for those payments.
Soughtton said the ministry had completed a review into people who were affected, and resumed their Winter Energy Payments, or backpaid people who did not receive their full payment.
"We apologise to everyone affected by this. We also briefed the minister on these issues last week and apologised to her. We're disappointed this happened," Soughtton said.
"Now that we have fixed this issue, we're writing to clients to explain what happened and what we've done about it, and to apologise."
Soughtton explained the Winter Energy Payment was not included in the list of payments exempt from suspension. It meant the suspension of the Payment was consistent with the legislation, but not consistent with how the Payment should be treated.
"This was an omission, rather than a policy decision. We have apologised to the minister for this," she said.
"This issue was not caused by staff error, system error, or automated decision-making. MSD has been administering the legislation as enacted."
'Human cost of urgency' – Labour
Upston was unsure whether the error would have been picked up even if the bill had gone through the standard legislative process.
But Labour's social development spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said if the bill had not gone through under urgency, then there would have been more scrutiny, and the error would have been picked up.
"It's appalling that many senior citizens have gone without their Winter Energy Payment in the coldest months of this year. This is as a result of the Government rushing through legislation under urgency, and this is the human cost of those mistakes that they have made."
Prime said Labour had been making its own enquiries after being contacted by people who had missed out, including people receiving other payments who had filled in their forms on time but had not received their payments due to a backlog.
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