2. Question No. 2—Social DevelopmentHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social DevelopmentQuestion No. 2—Social Development2. Hon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō) to the Minister for Social Development: Why were unauthorised payments made to 25000 people by the Ministry of Social Development?SPEAKER: I have been warned and I'll warn the House that the answer to this question is slightly longer than generally desirable.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development): Thank you Mr Speaker. All winter energy payments were made in accordance with the policy intent of the winter energy payment. The error sits with the drafting of the legislation. 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 or 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 legislation does not reflect that hence why we have introduced the Social Security (Winter Energy Payment) Amendment Bill. It is also important to note that the 25000 referred to in the question is 3.3 percent of the 774200 New Zealanders who on average per month receive the winter energy payment. After including those of partners close to one million New Zealanders have benefited from the winter energy payment.Hon Louise Upston: Does the Minister accept that this has been unlawful spending and what actions has the Minister taken to ensure this mistake isn't repeated under her watch?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: As I said earlier the policy intent was clear but the legislation doesn't match that. It's not the first time in this House in this Parliament that there has been a drafting error and a correction has had to be made. I think it's important to put it into context. If we look at an example that's similar that would be one where a change was made accidentally in 1998 with regard to stand-down periods through the Social Security Act. That mistake didn't get picked up and changed and rectified until 2015. So I'm glad that this took 16 months as opposed to 17 years.Hon Louise Upston: Does the Minister take full responsibility for this unlawful spending?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I'm the Minister so although I might not draft the legislation I take responsibility.Hon Louise Upston: Why will taxpayers pay the energy costs twice for those in full-time residential care?SPEAKER: Order! I suppose it's a rebuttable statement but the member has got to be very careful when she's asking questions starting with a fact which is at least debatable if not wrong.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: I have recently been made aware of an issue and I have it in my notes and now I just can't find it—Hon Gerry Brownlee: So not that aware?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Hang on a second. With regard to those in residential care there are about 460 patients who are in residential care where it is very difficult to determine whether or not they are getting the subsidy or they are not getting the subsidy. In fact the cost of trying to work that out would cost more than trying to rectify that situation for those 460 people. So the ministry has decided that they will continue to allow that to happen.Hon Louise Upston: So is the Minister saying there is still a large group of people for whom taxpayers will fund their energy costs twice instead of fixing the problem that's already been identified?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: This is an issue that has been brought to my attention and it is something that we're discussing. It is not a large group of people—it is 460—keeping in mind that close to one million New Zealanders have benefited from the winter energy payment.Hon Louise Upston: Why did the Minister wait so long to bring legislation to the House when she was alerted in June 2018 and why does she think it's right this time when clearly there are issues that she's just mentioned?Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: As I said earlier mistakes are made in the drafting of legislation that take a long time to pick up. This is 16 months. It will be rectified before the winter energy payment is paid out in May and that is the main thing: that we will be acting lawfully before it is paid out this year.