Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 21 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8106. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
11. 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
 to the  
Minister responsible for Novopay 
: What steps if any has he taken to ensure that individuals and schools are not financially disadvantaged as a result of the Novopay debacle? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister responsible for Novopay) 
: 
 Where a school employee has not been paid there are two or three courses of action that could be taken. Firstly the employee contacts their school administrator who contacts Talent2 for it to be rectified or the school may make a direct payment to the staff member for which the school is later reimbursed or the Ministry of Education is able to make a direct payment to any school employee. If any employee is charged any fees in relation to non-payment the ministry will reimburse that employee. The wider question of course and a very important question is whether the work is being done to remediate the situation so these underpayments and non-payments stop occurring. We have instituted with the help of the ministry and the acting Secretary for Education a range of measures in that regard. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Will employees who have had KiwiSaver or other superannuation contributions deducted from their salaries but not paid over to their scheme provider be compensated for lost returns that would otherwise have accrued and if not why not? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: My understanding is that yes they will be made good in those regards. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Has he asked for or received any advice on whether the Government as the employer or Novopay as the overall payroll provider are in breach of their obligations under tax and KiwiSaver legislation as a result of non-payment of an employee’s contributions to their savings providers; if not why not? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: I have received some advice from the Inland Revenue Department in regards to the payment of PAYE and so on. I cannot recall exactly what that covered at this point in relation to the matters that the member raises. It is obviously crucially important that those people are looked after and that things are made good. There is a lot of work going on to make sure that is the case. 
Chris Hipkins 
: What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that KiwiSaver and other savings contributions that have been deducted from people’s salaries but not paid to their savings providers are paid to their savings providers and when does he expect that to be sorted out? 
Hon STEVEN JOYCE 
: The ministry and Talent2 are working through a process at this time to catch up with the issues that have led to the matters that the member raises. A schedule is provided to the Inland Revenue Department on a monthly basis. That can be updated and corrected. They are working back from the current month. That is the process they are going through. I would state again for those who are affected that it is not satisfactory at all. We are working very hard and the ministry staff and the Talent2 staff are working hard on catching up on those issues. But it is taking too much time and we are continuing to work on it.