Social Development Minister Louise Upston has apologised for a "significant problem" after some people's benefits were wrongly suspended, saying it is "extremely unsatisfactory".
By Lauren Crimp of RNZ
The benefit payments were incorrectly stopped following a law change that was rushed through Parliament last year.
The new law requires some beneficiaries to re-confirm their circumstances at least once every 52 weeks, to check whether they are still eligible.
The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) said processing delays caused by a high volume of people confirming their circumstances meant some of their paperwork was not checked in time, so their benefit payments stopped.
Minister: ‘We don’t know’ how many benefits ‘wrongly suspended’ after law change – Watch on TVNZ+
It could not say how many people had been affected, but confirmed they had all been paid back.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon apologised on Friday, a week after he and Upston said sorry for another related but separate problem which saw thousands of pensioners miss out on their Winter Energy Payment.
Upston on Tuesday morning was asked whether she would also apologise for the wrongly suspended benefit payments.
"I've already done that," she said.
It was put to Upston that she had apologised for the first problem, but not the second.
"As I said, I've got a report that I'm expecting on the 10th of September [from MSD].
"When I have all the detail, I promise you, I will come back to you with exactly the extent of who was affected, how and why, and what the actions are."
Later on Tuesday, Upston offered an apology in Parliament.
"I acknowledge that a number of beneficiaries have had their benefit payments affected since the Mandatory Reviews Act came into force, and I apologise to those affected," she said.
"Some benefits have been wrongly suspended. What we don't know at this stage is how many. The situation is extremely unsatisfactory."
MSD was focused on ensuring payments had resumed, Upston said.
"1.3 million New Zealanders are paid regularly by MSD, I accept that this is a significant problem, and the situation is extremely unsatisfactory.
"That's why we are looking into exactly what has happened, why, and how many people are affected."
Parliament then held an urgent debate on the matter.
Opposition MPs urged Upston to explain what went wrong, and how many people were affected.
She said it was "simply not good enough" and reiterated that she had apologised, and was awaiting the outcome of the review.
No need to correct comments in Parliament, Upston says
MSD said it informed Upston of both problems on August 13.
On August 18, Upston was asked in Parliament whether any main benefits were wrongfully cut through the use of the "confirming your circumstances" policies triggered by mandatory reviews.
She said "no", and later confirmed there had been processing delays.
Upston was then asked whether those processing delays resulted in benefits being suspended, and she replied "possibly".
Upston on Tuesday denied misleading Parliament.
"The question was about policy and whether the policy had had any impact, that answer is no," she said.
"There's been two issues, and the one that was being asked about in the House was to do with processing delays. So processing delays caused an issue, the policy did not."
Labour accuses Govt of rushed lawmaking
Labour's social development spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said Upston was throwing officials under the bus when the problem was caused by "rushed lawmaking".
Upston denied that, saying the first problem was due to a policy error and the other was due to processing delays.
Prime said it did not wash that MSD and the Minister could not say how many beneficiaries were affected by the second problem, but could say how many missed out on the Winter Energy Payment.
"If they have been able to confirm that they have repaid all of that money to those people who have missed out on their payments due to their errors, then they know how many people there are," she said.
MSD said it could not say how many people were affected because that information was held in individual client files.
SHARE ME