Sepuloni CarmelSOCIAL SECURITY (WINTER ENERGY PAYMENT) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): I move That the Social Security (Winter Energy Payment) Amendment Bill be now read a third time.I'm pleased to see that the majority of this House is committed to ensuring that those New Zealanders who are most in need are able to heat their homes over the coming months. The winter energy payment was a new payment introduced as part of the Families Package. This package has provided additional financial support for low and middle income families towards accommodation heating and the costs of raising children. As a form of financial assistance the winter energy payment has the largest eligible population within the benefit system. It provides extra financial assistance in the winter months to everyone who is on a main benefit superannuation or veterans pension in recognition of the increasing cost of living that often leads to those on fixed and low incomes struggling to heat their homes in winter.This bill is about ensuring that the winter energy payment continues to positively impact the lives of New Zealanders by helping eligible people and families heat their homes over the winter months. During 2018 774200 New Zealanders on average per month received the winter energy payment. After including those with their partners close to one million people have benefited from the winter energy payment already.I want to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Social Services and Community Committee for their work and acknowledge all of the contributions of submitters. I also want to acknowledge the officials who have worked on the bill. The Social Security (Winter Energy Payment) Amendment Bill has gone through the full scrutiny of the House within a short time frame. This has provided the opportunity for feedback from relevant stakeholders and select committee consideration within the specific and narrow nature of the changes proposed by the bill.The winter energy payment policies themselves have not been amended. The only change is ensuring that legislation gives effect to the policy intent that has already been agreed to by this House. The shortened time frame also reflects the importance of passing this legislation by 1 May 2019. Our priority is ensuring everyone who is entitled to the winter energy payment receives this payment so they can have extra support throughout winter with the costs of heating.This bill amends the Social Security Act 2018 to align the winter energy payment legislation with the agreed policy intent. As I mentioned no new policy is being introduced as a result of the proposed amendments. The technical amendments in the bill ensure that the people who were intended to be eligible for winter energy payments received these payments lawfully. The policy intent was that the following two groups of people should receive the winter energy payment: people receiving Government funding for their long-term residential care or residential care services but who are not eligible for residential care subsidy or residential support subsidy and people who travel overseas for more than four weeks during the winter period who should receive the winter energy payment for the first four weeks of their absence.The amendments in this bill will ensure that people in these two scenarios are legally eligible for the winter energy payment. The amendments under clause 4 to section 72(2) ensure that people receiving Government funding for long-term residential care or residential care services and not receiving a residential care subsidy or residential support subsidy are not excluded from receiving the winter energy payment. The reason why people receiving one of these two subsidies are not entitled to the winter energy payment is because the cost of their care including heating costs has already been met by the State.During select committee officials identified two further small groups where the winter energy payment is intended to be paid: people receiving residential care services with long-term chronic health conditions who do not contribute to the cost of their care—the funding that they receive is not considered a residential support subsidy because they do not contribute for their care—and people who are in residential care due to a disability or a long-term chronic health condition where the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) does not redirect their benefit to the provider instead they have a private arrangement with their provider. This funding is also not considered a residential support subsidy because MSD does not redirect their benefit. The amendments proposed in clause 4 to section 72 of the Act have been updated to make it clear that these two groups would be eligible for the winter energy payment.There is also a small group of people—around 460 according to MSD—who are in residential care and receive Government funding for this care; for example if they have been the victims of crime or are also receiving a main benefit superannuation or veterans pension. MSD has no information about the funding they receive for their care as MSD is not involved in undertaking financial means assessments for this group as it is not required and it continues to pay these people the full rate of their benefit. In order for MSD to identify this small group and change their payments new systems would be required to share information between the Ministry of Health and MSD. MSD is determined that the most cost-effective lawful and practical option is to continue to pay this group the winter energy payment.The amendments in clause 5 to section 220(2) ensure that people who leave New Zealand for longer than four weeks are eligible to receive the winter energy payment for the first four weeks of their absence. This aligns with the treatment of other forms of supplementary benefits. The bill also retrospectively validates decisions made by MSD last year to pay the winter energy payment in the scenarios that I've outlined.Eligibility for the winter energy payment has already been agreed by the Government and Cabinet and in the House through the debate on the Families Package legislation. The clients who were paid winter energy payment last winter were all entitled to it. The issue is that the legislation did not reflect this intent which is why we are correcting it. Most importantly there have been no negative impacts on clients as a result of the legislative error. This bill will simply align legislation with policy intent and operations. Following on from this drafting error MSD has documented lessons learnt from the winter energy payment process and will ensure that these are applied next time a new payment like this is set up.We know that our officials are working hard to support this Government as we continue to make positive change for the well-being of New Zealanders. In this House this topic this issue has come up for debate and certain points were raised during other parts of the debate in this House. One in particular was the fact that it's taken us 16 months to identify and then rectify the situation. It's never ideal when mistakes are made in legislation and corrections need to be made to the legislation but this is not the first time that a drafting error has occurred with legislation.As the Minister I acknowledge again that it's not ideal but I will say that one of the examples that I was able to find that was recent was an example whereby in 1998 a change to stand-down periods in the Social Security Act was made and it went unnoticed and was not picked up until 2015 at which point the Government of the day were then able to make the necessary changes. There were financial ramifications in that instance whereby many people over that period of time had lost a day of pay because the legislation was not befitting of what the intention of the policy was.Yes—disappointed it's taken 16 months for us to discover it and then change this. However 16 months as I said before in this House is much better than in that particular instance 17 years. So we are here to make the change tonight. It is the final reading. This bill has gone through a fast but thorough parliamentary process to ensure that people who were intended to be eligible for the winter energy payment receive it now in a lawful way. This Government is committed to supporting those New Zealanders who are most in need to heat their homes this winter. I commend this bill to the House.