Lauren
Crimp Political reporter
Social
Development Minister Louise Upston is refusing to apologise
after some people’s
benefits were wrongly suspended.
Upston says she’s
awaiting the outcome of a review into the matter, and she’s
already said sorry for another problem caused by the same
law change.
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.
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.
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Upston on
Tuesday 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.”
Upston said she was
frustrated by the problems.
“Clearly, with the Winter
Energy Payment and others, there were people who didn’t
receive payments that should of, and that is challenging for
those individuals.”
Questions
remain over comments in the House
MSD said it
informed Upston of both problems on 13 August.
On 18
August, Upston was asked in Parliament whether beneficiaries
had missed payments due to processing delays.
She said
“no”, but after multiple further questions, said
“possibly”.
RNZ asked Upston to clarify her
comments.
She said she was informed of the Winter
Energy Payment problem on Thursday [13 August] and it was
resolved by Saturday morning.
“There are other
challenges related to delays in processing, and so by the
10th of September, I will have a report that goes into any
issue that has been identified that relates to the [Confirm]
Your Circumstances, and that’s what I’m waiting on
information for.”
Upston was also asked whether she
had misled Parliament, but she did not
respond.
Labour urges Upston to take
responsibility
Labour’s social development
spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime said Upston should correct
the record in the House, given her first answer said the
problem had not occurred.
Prime said Upston was
throwing officials under the bus when the problem was caused
by “rushed lawmaking”.
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, said
Prime.
“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.
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