Work and Income could pay out millions in 'missed days' payments

Friday, 13 November 2015

Christmas has come early for hundreds of past and present beneficiaries, with Work and Income forking out $26,600 this week in back-pay for 'missed days'.

And a beneficiary advocate believes there could be tens of millions of dollars in payments to follow, as Work and Income makes good on 18 years' worth of unpaid entitlements.

Aaron Tily, the administrator of a Facebook advocacy page, was among the first to receive payments.

This week, it backpaid 253 people an average of $105 each, following a long-time payment blunder that was revealed seven weeks ago.

Between June 3, 1998, and September 28 this year, Work and Income waited an extra day after applicants' stand-down periods ended before making their initial benefit payments.

Beneficiary advocate Kay Brereton says potentially hundreds of thousands of people could be owed up to $700.

Under the law, it should have paid on the same day the stand-down lifted.

The government's known of the mistake since early this year, and introduced legislation in June to retrospectively change the 'missing day' provision, so all of the erroneous payments would have been legitimised.

The amendment was tucked inside a wider social security bill, but long-time beneficiary advocate Kay Brereton spotted the tiny tweak in September, while preparing a select committee submission.

'I was stunned, to be honest, that they thought that was an okay thing to do,' she said.

Since then, Brereton's been helping beneficiaries past and present claim what they're owed.

By November 10, 632 people had asked Work and Income to review their cases.

The Ministry of Social Development said 56 cases were found to have no entitlements owing, 253 were paid and the rest were still being processed.

Brereton says the biggest payout she's heard of so far is about $300, but bigger payments could follow.

She believed there could be hundreds of thousands of people owed money, some for several years' worth of missed days' payments.

'With people who have been doing seasonal work - meat-workers, some people who are working in schools as teacher aides, things like that - those people might have been on and off benefits every year and had a stand-down every year, and be owed a day [for each year].'

The price of one day depended on the benefit and the year, but Brereton calculated it would be an average of $40 - meaning long-term claimants could be owed up to $700 or more.

'It is huge,' she said.

Work and Income declined to put a figure on how much it owed.

It changed its processes on September 29, so anyone granted a benefit from that date received their first payment on the same day their stand-down ended.

The retrospective legislation, once passed, will change that to the day after the stand-down ends - the way Work and Income has paid it for the last 18 years.

Brereton has helped set up a Facebook page and website where potential claimants can access a generic letter to send to Work and Income, asking for a review.

The Facebook page had nearly 7000 members on Friday morning. The group's administrator, Aaron Tily, said he had received $93.

Brereton is prepared for some public pushback - but says the claimants are simply seeking what they're legally entitled to.

'The people with the biggest claims, they're the people who're going to work when there's work, and having to go back onto the benefit when that work stops.

'It's the system ripping off the poor people, rather than the people ripping off the system.'

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