Sepuloni CarmelSecond ReadingHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for Social Development and Employment): I move That the Social Security (Accommodation Supplement) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. First I would like to thank the parties in this House for agreeing to consider this bill under urgency in accordance with Standing Order 57. As I've mentioned this bill seeks to align legislation with longstanding policy and practice as it relates to the accommodation supplement for those with partners in care. The bill will amend the Social Security Act 2018 and the Social Security Regulations 2018 to account for situations when one partner is in long-term residential care and the other partner remains in the community. In these situations the current practice is to treat the individual in the community as single recognising that their partner in care is unable to contribute to their accommodation costs. The community partner instead is solely responsible for covering the rent board or costs associated with owning a home.This practice however is inconsistent with existing legislation. I do want to mention that this happens from time to time with complex legislation certainly not just on our watch. There are many examples of this occurring—when the policy intent is not captured in its entirety in the legislation. We have a whole alignment programme with the Ministry of Social Development to continue to look for any issues like this and I know that with other pieces of complex legislation it is often something that arises.The Ministry of Social Development became aware of the issue following a 2018-19 review of a decision at which time the current practice was deemed to be inconsistent with the Social Security Act 2018. Work was started on how to address this. However during the time that that work was under way we were hit with a pandemic which was COVID. Our focus was to ensure we were responding at that time to the COVID pandemic and its impact including through supports like the wage subsidy and care in the community for those self-isolating. So that is the reason why this particular piece of work was parked. I think everyone in this House would agree that the Ministry of Social Development had quite a load that they needed to work on urgently with regards to the pandemic and things like the wage subsidy were very time-consuming and meant that there were certain things that were put to the side. I acknowledge that this has been raised by Opposition members but I do want to clarify why it was pushed to the side at that time.We do remain committed to fixing our legislation where it requires fixing to ensure that those with partners in care in this particular instance do not lose support for their housing costs. If we don't amend this issue an estimated 260 recipients would experience a reduction to their accommodation supplement by as much as $62 per week or more than $3200 per year. This bill will amend the Social Security Act 2018 to ensure that these New Zealanders can lawfully receive the single rate to the accommodation supplement when their partner is in care.Many of these recipients are older people receiving New Zealand superannuation or a veteran's pension and they as such are likely on fixed incomes. This bill also includes consequential amendments to the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the Veterans' Support Act 2014. It confirms that a community partner would not be subject to abatement of the accommodation supplement in respect of any income that was included as part of their partner in care's financial means assessment. The inclusion of this amendment will maintain current practice and thus ensure no change to the accommodation supplement that individuals currently receive.Should this bill pass it will come into effect immediately and no later than 1 December of this year so recipients can continue to receive their benefits at the current rate. We want to ensure that the accommodation supplement continues to help eligible couples and individuals to pay for their rent board and cost of owning a home. I commend this bill to the House.