Brenda
[FYI request #17894 email]
17 January 2022
Tēnā koe Brenda,
On 9 December 2021
, you emailed the Ministry of Social Development (the Ministry)
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following
information:
•
How many people are granted the job seeker benefit via this section (63) of
the Act? (instead of eligible)
•
What's the range of rates paid to these people? (min/max) What's the median
rate?
•
What's the mean rate?
•
Are there any internal documents for guidance or some form of schedule in
your policies on what rates are paid?
In the interests of clarity, I will answer your questions in turn:
•
How many people are granted the job seeker benefit via this section (63) of
the Act? (instead of eligible)
Section 63 of the Social Security Act 2018 allows the Ministry to grant an Emergency
Benefit on grounds of hardship where a person is:
• Unable to earn enough income for themselves or their dependants (if any);
and
• Who is not entitled to a main benefit under the Social Security Act or to New
Zealand superannuation or a veteran’s pension; and
• To whom the Ministry has determined not to grant one of the following
benefits on grounds of hardship: Jobseeker Support, Youth Payment, or
Young Parent Payment.
The Emergency Benefit is granted at the rate of the equivalent benefit. The
equivalent benefit is determined by the Case Manager when processing the
Emergency Benefit application.
Please see
Table One in
Appendix A which shows the number of Emergency
Benefit grants granted on hardship grounds at Jobseeker Support rate in the period
of 1 January 2019 to 30 November 2021, by month.
There are numerous factors which influence the amount of Emergency Benefits
granted each month. These are largely seasonal related trends. For example, spikes
in December are attributable to seasonal workers requiring assistance, businesses
which have shut down over the Christmas break and do not qualify for holiday pay,
or teacher aides applying for assistance after schools close for the holidays. Please
note this list is not exhaustive. April 2020 increases are largely due to the effects of
COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns.
•
What's the range of rates paid to these people? (min/max) What's the median
rate?
•
What's the mean rate?
This information is publicly available, and therefore I am refusing this aspect of your
request under section 18(d) of the Act. Please see the following link for the rates
payable of Jobseeker Support:
www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/deskfile/main-
benefits-rates/jobseeker-support-current.html
•
Are there any internal documents for guidance or some form of schedule in
your polices on what rates are paid?
The Ministry’s processes for determining rates payable for the Emergency Benefit are
publicly
available
here:
workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-
benefits/emergency-benefit/payment.html. This website is a direct copy of the
internal website that Ministry staff use.
Please find attached the ‘Emergency Benefit Interview form’, which is completed by
Ministry staff when clients apply for the Emergency Benefit. You will note that
Question 16 asks at what rate the benefit will be granted. This rate is manually
calculated based on the client’s circumstances. You can find the formulas used to
calculate
the
rate
payable,
as
well
as
examples,
here:
workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/emergency-
benefit/charging-income-01.html
The principles and purposes of the Official Information Act 1982 under which you
made your request are:
• to create greater openness and transparency about the plans, work and
activities of the Government,
• to increase the ability of the public to participate in the making and
administration of our laws and policies and
• to lead to greater accountability in the conduct of public affairs.
This Ministry fully supports those principles and purposes. The Ministry therefore
intends to make the information contained in this letter and any attached documents
available to the wider public. The Ministry will do this by publishing this letter and
attachments
on the Ministry’s website. Your personal details will be deleted, and the
Ministry will not publish any information that would identify you as the person who
requested the information.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email].
Page 2 of 5
If you are not satisfied with this response regarding benefits granted through section
63, you have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman.
Information
about
how
to
make
a
complaint
is
available
at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
Bridget Saunders
Manager Issue Resolution
Service Delivery
Page 3 of 5
Appendix A
Table One: Number of Emergency Benefit grants granted on hardship
grounds at Jobseeker Support rate in the period 1 January 2019 to 30
November 2021, by month.
Month of grant
Number of grants
January 2019
423
February 2019
255
March 2019
324
April 2019
417
May 2019
360
June 2019
327
July 2019
435
August 2019
303
September 2019
474
October 2019
462
November 2019
225
December 2019
924
January 2020
405
February 2020
246
March 2020
465
April 2020
1,059
May 2020
447
June 2020
318
July 2020
354
August 2020
360
September 2020
444
October 2020
363
November 2020
267
December 2020
1,302
January 2021
558
February 2021
309
March 2021
393
April 2021
414
May 2021
312
June 2021
309
July 2021
525
August 2021
762
September 2021
921
October 2021
771
November 2021
453
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Notes for Table One:
• This is a number of grants and not number of clients. A client may have
multiple grants during the reported period
• To protect confidentiality the Ministry uses processes to make it difficult to
identify an individual person or entity from published data. These data tables
have had random rounding to base three applied to all cell counts in the table.
The impact of applying random rounding is that columns and rows may not
add exactly to the given column or row totals. The published counts will never
differ by more than two counts.
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