Carter Chris: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Carter Chris: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:3936] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Housing) 
: 
 I thank the previous speaker Paula Bennett the National list member. I thought her speech was a thoughtful presentation that raised some important questions and I will focus on a few of them and on the points she raised. 
Miss Bennett asked whether State housing is allocated on a needs-based assessment. I can assure her it is. Since 1999 the allocation of houses for Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants has been entirely on a needs base. There is quite a rigorous test. I represent a constituency that adjoins where her office is and both of us know well that we live in an area that has the largest Housing New Zealand Corporation waiting list in the country. I regularly have people coming into my office—as does Miss Bennett as she indicated in her speech—who are very unhappy that they have not yet been able to access a Housing New Zealand Corporation house in west Auckland because we do follow a very strict needs assessment. Sadly because of the 13000 houses that were sold by the previous Government we are behind in the number of properties we have available to rent out but we are rapidly catching up. 
The issue of wealthy tenants was also raised by the member. It is true that some people pay market rents—about 10 percent of Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants. But they are tenants we inherited by and large from a previous time when people were paying large rents and the selection for State houses was made not on a needs basis but on the ability to pay. I can say that 98 percent of new tenants are not paying market rents but income-related rents—they have been placed in a Housing New Zealand Corporation house on a needs basis only. In some areas particularly rural areas we do not have a waiting list so properties are available there that sometimes do go to market renters. But as I said 98 percent of new tenants are paying income-related rents showing that the system of helping those who need help the most is working. But we are still working on the stock. 
Anyway getting back to the bill itself—although I think that background information is important—I will say that there was a lot of focus by the first two speakers on what are essentially rorts to the system. This bill will actually be very helpful for beneficiaries who are Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants. It will ensure that beneficiaries are receiving the full entitlement to social assistance and the Ministry of Social Development will be able to check that Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants are receiving their correct entitlements. Should Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants move into private rental accommodation they will then through the system be able to be checked as to whether an accommodation supplement is appropriate to their needs. 
So this bill is about streamlining the system. It is about identifying where the greatest need is. One of the issues many members of the Committee will have had to deal with in their time as constituency MPs is that of people who run up debts through social welfare overpayments. That does happen sometimes. This debt can be neglected very easily and suddenly people who are on a very low income or a benefit can discover that they have through an overpayment process quite a considerable debt on their hands. This system of matching databases will go a long way to preventing that situation from happening and of course will ultimately be very beneficial to those who have received overpayments so as to nip the thing in the bud as early as possible. So I think it is a very sensible process. I thank the main Opposition party for supporting the bill and I am looking forward to us working through this process fairly quickly.