Dear Inland Revenue Department,

I am writing to request the following information:

1. In the past 12 months what was the total monetary amount of child support payments transferred from IRD to to Work & Income?

1a. Of that amount: how much was to go towards offsetting main benefit payments; how much was to be paid out to people due to the child support payments exceeding the rate of people's benefit payments; and what was any remaining amount intended for?

2. In the past 12 months what was the total number of individuals making child support payments to IRD which were transferred to W&I? Please break this down by gender, age, and ethnicity.

2a. In the past 12 months what was the total number of individuals making child support payments to IRD. Please break this down by gender, age, ethnicity, and whether the payments were voluntary or not.

2b. In the past 12 months what was the total number of people whose benefit payments were being offset by child support payments to IRD transferred to W&I? Please break this down by gender, age, and ethnicity.

2c. In the past 12 months what was the total number of children for whom child support payments to IRD were transferred to W&I?

2d. In the past 12 months what was the total of children for whom child support payments were made to IRD.

3. Please break down the number of child support payments (per child) which were made to IRD and transferred to W&I in the past 12 months according to weekly cost bands, e.g. how many payments between $0-10 per week; how many $10-20 per week, etc.

3a. In the past 12 months what number of child support payments to IRD which were transferred to W&I were at the minimum child support rate?

3b. In the past 12 months what number of child support payments to IRD which were transferred to W&I to offset benefit payments were above the level of the main benefit they were offsetting, and thus led to some portion of that child support money being transferred to the carer?

3c. What was the average rate of child support payments (per child) which were paid to IRD and transferred to W&I?

4. In the past 12 months, of the carers receiving child support payments made to IRD, what number were not receiving a main benefit from W&I? Please break this down by age, gender, and ethnicity.

5. In the past 12 months how many notifications did IRD send to W&I which amounted to a notification for W&I to enforce a sanction on a beneficiary under section 70A of the Social Security Act?

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan King
Secretary
Auckland Action Against Poverty

Dear Inland Revenue Department,

I'm writing to check if my request has been received?

Yours faithfully,

Jonathan King