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New Zealand law explained for everyone

Social Security Act 2018

Enforcement: sanctions and offences - Sanctions for breach of obligations other than young person or young parent obligations - How number of failures is counted

240: Failures that can be counted

You could also call this:

“Understanding how the government keeps track of times you don't follow benefit rules”

When you receive a benefit from the government, they keep track of times when you don’t follow the rules. These are called failures. The government can count these failures as long as you’re getting money from them, even if the type of benefit changes.

Sometimes, your benefit might stop for a short time and then start again. The government treats this as if you’re getting the same benefit the whole time. This means they can still count any failures that happen during this time.

The government has special rules for when a benefit stops and starts again. If your benefit stops because of a rule called section 332, and then starts again because of another rule called section 336, they’ll treat it as if you’ve been getting the same benefit the whole time.

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239: Reduction or suspension of reduced benefit, or

“Your benefit can still be reduced or stopped if you didn't follow the rules before”

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241: Meaning of continuous payment, or

“What counts as getting benefits without stopping”

Part 5 Enforcement: sanctions and offences
Sanctions for breach of obligations other than young person or young parent obligations: How number of failures is counted

240Failures that can be counted

  1. A failure can be counted if it occurs during a period of continuous payment of a main benefit, whether or not it is the same benefit.

  2. For the purposes of subsection (1), MSD must treat as the same benefit:

  3. a specified benefit that expires under section 332; and
    1. a specified benefit regranted to the beneficiary under section 336.

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