Companies receiving COVID-19 wage subsidy
Jeremy Roundill made this Official Information request to Ministry of Social Development
Response to this request is long overdue. By law Ministry of Social Development should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.
From: Jeremy Roundill
Tēnā koutou e te Ministry of Social Development,
I request the following information about the businesses which have applied for the COVID-19 wage subsidy:
Business name
NZBN
Number of employees paid
Total amount paid
Application date
I realise the majority of this information is available on the Work and Income search page (https://services.workandincome.govt.nz/e...), however I'm unable to find the information I'm looking for due to limitations in the search function.
Further, some of the business names do not correlate with a company registered with the Companies Office.
Nā,
Jeremy Roundill
From: Info (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tēnā koe Jeremy Roundill,
Thank you for your email received 7 April 2020, under the Official
Information Act 1982. Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate
officials at National Office to respond. You may expect a decision
regarding your request to be sent to you as soon as possible.
The Ministry is focussing its resources on supporting New Zealanders
through COVID-19 by administering welfare support during this
unprecedented time. Resources within our business units, where
information for OIA requests is drawn from, is limited or unavailable.
Staff have been redeployed to assist the frontline with the processing of
welfare payments and/or Ministry hardware (such as laptops) have been
reprioritised. As such, there will be a delay in you receiving a response
from the Ministry.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and
Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent
Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whānau
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
From: Jeremy Roundill
Kia ora anō rā,
If possible, could I get a timeline on release of this information?
I understand the majority of this information is already approved for release (as it's contained on the Work and Income website sans-NZBN).
If it would expedite fulfillment of my request, I'm happy to receive a spreadsheet copy of the information which is currently searchable on the Work and Income website in the first instance, with a full copy as capacity allows.
Nā,
Jeremy Roundill
From: Info (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Kia ora,
The [1][email address] Inbox is not being monitored. This is an automatic
reply.
How to contact Work and Income:
MSD has a huge range of information on their website.
This is the best way to get general information:
[2]https://workandincome.govt.nz/
For updates on our products and services relating to COVID-19 go to:
[3]https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/eligib...
If you have a MyMSD account, we recommend applying for any support you
need through this - [4]https://my.msd.govt.nz/
Over the last week there has been an unprecedented increase in New
Zealanders who need assistance from Work and Income, new payments have
been introduced and we have had to move to delivering all services online
and over the phone.
Work and Income staff have been working tirelessly to respond to the
increased demand for services.
If you have been trying to call about the status of your wage subsidy
application, this is being worked on and you will be contacted.
Calling to enquire slows down processing and call centre staff don’t have
access to this information.
For anyone on a benefit, please be assured that benefit payments will
continue. Changes have been made so people don’t need to do annual reviews
or reapplications, or get their medical certificate renewed for now.
And Temporary Additional Support payments have been extended.
If you need urgent assistance, please call 0800 559 009 or for Seniors
0800 552 002.
If you have been told you will be called back, you will be.
It might take a little while, but calling back again will only slow things
down.
If our lines are busy - please don't hang up and try again immediately
this makes our network run slower, check if the information you need is on
the website and try again later in the day.
We appreciate your kindness and patience at this time, and encourage you
to keep trying to get in touch through the avenues above.
Nga mihi maioha, [5][email address]
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
show quoted sections
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tçnâ koe Jeremy Roundill,
Please find attached the Ministry’s response to your Official Information
Act request.
Nâ mâtou noa, nâ
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and
Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent.
Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whânau.
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
20200630 OIA response letter ROUNDILL.pdf
1.5M
Download
View as HTML
2020 06 12 Public Employer Search.csv.txt
6.4M
Download
View as HTML
Tçnâ koe Jeremy Roundill,
Please find attached the Ministry’s response to your Official Information
Act request.
Nâ mâtou noa, nâ
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and
Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent.
Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whânau.
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Offensive? Unsuitable?
Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid requests for Official Information (read more).
If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators
Report this requestAct on what you've learnt
Similar requests
Wage subsidy application - New World Waikanae
To Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment by Megan Brown
List of Recipients of Covid-19 Wage Subsidies
To Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment by Rashid Ameer
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
It seems unusual that MSD has told you that parts of your request are refused because the information is publicly available using the search function, while also telling you that some of the information they have refused this way is not currently available using that search function.
Disappointing, too, that they haven't appeared to have meaningfully addressed what you said about having been unable to find the information you seek using that search function.
I would have expected MSD to refuse your request completely under section 18(f), though to be fair I'm not sure if that would be justified given MSD has already collected all of this information. And since that's not the reason they used, it couldn't be tested with the Ombudsman unless you complain about this refusal under section 18(d) and they fall back on 18(f) after failing to defend it.
Link to this