Tolley Anne: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTolley Anne: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 02 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2885. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNE TOLLEY (Minister for Social Development):This legislation amends the Social Security Act 1964. The proposed amendments confirm policy intent in several areas by addressing ambiguities and technical errors. Our welfare system delivers assistance to over 1 million New Zealanders each year. It is important that people are treated consistently and as we intended.There is a major and deliberate difference between the support provided to students in tertiary education and the support provided to low and middle income families through the accommodation supplement. The accommodation supplement recognises the housing needs of low to middle income people and assists them with accommodation costs when they are not getting other Government assistance such as income-related rent or student support. The Government provides tertiary students with a package of support for their costs through substantially subsidised fees the student allowance accommodation benefit and access to student loans.A loophole in the Act has meant that some students can get a higher level of accommodation assistance by accessing the accommodation supplement. That is not right. Students should get the assistance designed for them. The adequacy of New Zealand’s student support is completely beyond the scope of this bill. New Zealand students are well provided for. That is right and proper. Having highly educated skilled people is a benefit to the whole country but there is also an individual advantage accruing from tertiary education in terms of the income a person can earn over their lifetime. This is why student support in New Zealand is shared between taxpayers individual students and their families. This bill closes the loophole so that students must use the assistance designed for them and cannot claim the accommodation supplement.It is important that people receiving weekly compensation are treated the same in the welfare system regardless of who pays the compensation. The Social Security Appeal Authority has said that the current wording in the Act does not cover weekly compensation paid under the Accredited Employers Programme. It would be unfair if the benefit system treated an injured worker differently just because the weekly compensation payments were made by an accredited employer rather than ACC. This is not what was intended. Work and Income has always treated all weekly compensation payments in exactly the same manner: a dollar for dollar deduction from benefits.The amendments ensure that payments of weekly compensation continue to be treated the same whether paid by ACC or by an accredited employer or for that matter by someone else acting on behalf of ACC or an employer. The change will be backdated to take effect from the July 1999 practice when the wording was first changed to mention ACC as the payer to validate previous practice.The income threshold at which the accommodation supplement starts reducing for non-beneficiary sole parents was raised in the legislation unintentionally as a result of the recent welfare reform changes. The bill resets the income threshold to align the legislation with what was intended and it is backdated to take effect from 15 July 2013 to validate previous practice.Through the welfare reforms the personal earnings exemption intended for people receiving the supported living payment because they are permanently and severely sick injured or disabled has been extended to all supported living payment recipients. The bill returns the personal earnings exemption to those it was intended for and is backdated to take effect from 15 July 2013 to validate previous practice.New Zealand superannuation and main benefits have a residency qualification which requires a person to have lived in New Zealand for a certain period. A person employed overseas but paying New Zealand income tax on their overseas earnings can be considered resident in New Zealand during this period for benefit purposes. This will not change. However the Social Security Appeal Authority has said that the Act allows people to be considered resident and present for benefit purposes during periods of overseas employment even if they did not pay the New Zealand income tax they were liable for on their overseas earnings. The bill clarifies that a person can be considered resident and present for periods of overseas employment only where a person has actually had tax deducted or withheld under New Zealand’s PAYE rules. The change is backdated to take effect from 23 June 1987 to validate previous practice.The changes in this bill will ensure that the welfare system treats people consistently and as intended by the Government. I commend this bill to the House.