Lotu-Iiga Sam: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lotu-Iiga Sam: Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9094. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to speak in the third reading of the Social Assistance (Living Alone Payments) Amendment Bill. It is a pleasure because this bill will ensure that single superannuitants and veterans pensioners as my colleague Paula Bennett has said who are living alone do not have to make a separate application to receive their full entitlement. The bill really addresses two issues with regard to the current living alone payment to ensure that those superannuitants and those veterans pensioners do not have to make those applications. 
We on this side of the House are adamant that this group of New Zealanders should not face any more unnecessary difficulty in obtaining what they are rightfully entitled to. These changes will ensure a fairer more equitable experience for single superannuitants as well as those single veterans pensioners who live alone. It is important because it is a separate supplementary benefit that recognises that single superannuitants and veterans pensioners who live alone face higher living costs as they are unable to share the expenses of maintaining a stable household. So a single superannuitant who has been granted this living alone payment receives $25.56 more per week after tax than a single superannuitant who is in a shared accommodation arrangement. Because the living alone payment is a separate benefit superannuitants and these veterans pensioners who become single usually after the death of a spouse or a partner are currently required to make this specific application in order to receive it. In addition they will need to apply for a living alone payment within a given time period—28 days—in order to get it backdated. 
These requirements can be a real burden on older New Zealanders particularly when they have lost that spouse. Also because many are not aware of the payment they do not apply for it so they miss out on their full entitlements which again can create unnecessary hardship. So it is important that we amend this legislation so that older New Zealanders who suddenly find themselves alone do not struggle to pay their bills. 
Very quickly the second main purpose of the bill is to amend the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the War Pensions Act 1954 to update the definition of a dependent child. That definition is to be aligned with the provisions of the Social Security Act 1964 as well as our income tax legislation the Income Tax Act 2007. This amendment means that single superannuitants and veterans pensioners with dependent children will receive the new single living alone rate until the end of the calendar year in which the child turns 18 as long as the child is at school or in training. 
This is a necessary and an essential piece of legislation and will bring certainty and ease to some of our more vulnerable citizens as they look to live out their lives in peace and harmony. I commend this bill to the House.