Sepuloni CarmelSOCIAL SECURITY (ACCOMMODATION SUPPLEMENT) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I present a legislative statement on the Social Security (Accommodation Supplement) Amendment Bill. DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I move That the Social Security (Accommodation Supplement) Amendment Bill be read for a first time. I also move for this bill to be considered via a truncated legislative process with all stages under urgency as provided under Standing Order 57. As such this bill will not be reviewed by a select committee.The bill before the House is not large but it contains important technical amendments to ensure that a few hundred New Zealanders many of whom are superannuitants can be lawfully paid the rate of accommodation supplement as originally intended and don't lose support to pay their housing costs. The accommodation supplement was introduced to provide financial assistance to low-income people so they can pay for their rent board or the cost of owning a home. Like many of our social security assistance programmes the accommodation supplement was designed to be flexible to respond to individuals' and families' evolving circumstances. One such scenario involves couples where a person may enter long-term residential care while the other remains in the community. The partner in care may be in a rest home a long-stay hospital—due to disability or illness—or a specialised unit to treat a condition such as dementia. As such their income will be used to pay for their care and therefore they will be unable to contribute to paying the lease mortgage or board leaving the full housing cost on their partner. The Ministry of Social Development's (MSD) longstanding policy and practice has been to treat the community partner as though they are single; recognising they are now solely responsible for paying their own accommodation costs. While this common-sense approach reflects this cohort's unique circumstances it has been determined to be inconsistent with legislation. Under the Social Security Act 2018 currently the community partner and partner in care should continue to be treated as a couple and therefore assessed and paid the appropriate rate. The bill before this House intends to align legislation to the original policy intent and current practice related to the accommodation supplement. This bill means that we can continue to support the estimated 300 New Zealanders in this situation. If we don't do this around 260 would otherwise experience a reduction in their accommodation supplement benefit by as much as $62 per week or approximately $3200 per year. As many of these recipients are older people receiving New Zealand superannuation or a veteran's pension—and therefore likely on fixed and limited incomes—this assistance represents a sizable portion of their income.This bill also includes consequential amendments to the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the Veterans' Support Act 2014 and it clarifies the approach for the abatement of benefits for a community partner across these two Acts along with the Social Security Act. Specifically the consequential amendments confirm that a community partner would not be subject to abatement of accommodation supplement in respect of any income that was included as part of their partner in care's financial means assessment. Under section 73 of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act I have consulted with other political parties in this House about the consequential amendment and none have expressed any concerns. The social security legislation is complex and issues like this have happened before. In fact under the previous Government the last National Government several errors were identified where the policy and legislation were not aligned that required fixing. For example in 2014 the Social Security Appeal Authority alerted MSD to an error in an amendment of section 80BA of the Social Security Act made in 1988 that meant a benefit should commence on the day that a stand-down period ends. As a result of this operational practice had to be amended to align with legislation for the period between September and November. This meant clients who were subject to a stand-down period received an additional day of benefit. Legislation was then amended to address the error. Should this House agree to this bill I propose the changes come into effect a day after Royal assent has been provided no later than 1 December this year. Immediate action will ensure that recipients will not experience any disruption to the level of accommodation supplement they currently receive. We want to ensure that the accommodation supplement continues to positively impact the lives of New Zealanders by helping eligible couples and individuals to pay for their rent board and owning a home; this bill helps to achieve this. I commend this bill to the House and I move that this bill proceed to second reading.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.