Dear Ministry of Social Development,
The Social Security Act 1963 supplies provisions to other Acts.e.g. the PIR Act, & ACC Act.

During the period 1990-2010

1/ Did front line staff / managers have specific training in the provisions held in other Acts as they pertained to a DSW applicant, at the time of application?

E.g, An office worker applies for assistance to DSW because they broke a leg in a cycling accident.Their employer had terminated their employment on the Friday immediately prior to the accident & the employee is considering disputing the decision.

The applicant could have cover from ACC but hasn't applied yet & doesn't know to do so.

2/ Would the client officer be expected to recognize through training, that ACC may or may not be available to the applicant?
3/ Would the client officer have had further assistance, ie. a flow chart, reference manual etc to guide them?
4/ Would the situation under normal procedure, have been bought to the attention of a supervisor?
5/ How would the client officer have been expected to process the application,i.e to either accept, accept with provision, or deny?
6/ Was the staff training, availability of advice, process standardization & staff performance monitoring, equivalent, in particular regard to derivative Acts, or referenced in subordinate acts, to that which is available today?

I believe that it is around this period that the then DSW changed from a manual to a computerized system, & also during this time, major changes occurred in fairly quick succession to the provisions within the ACC Act.

Yours faithfully,

Kaye Serrah