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Social Security Act 2018

Administration - Review of entitlement to, or rate of, benefit granted

304A: Grounds for review of whether person’s information share child support payment is or was their weekly income

You could also call this:

“When you can ask to check how MSD counts your child support money as income”

You can ask for a review of how much child support payment is counted as your weekly income if the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) agrees with any of these reasons:

You didn’t get all or part of the payment when you were supposed to.

You couldn’t use all or part of the payment because of special circumstances.

MSD made a mistake in how much they counted as your weekly income. This could be because:

  • The tax department gave wrong information.
  • A computer system read the correct information wrongly.
  • Someone put the correct information into MSD’s system incorrectly.

The payment was sent to the wrong person, or not sent to the right person.

Because of a problem with a computer system, MSD didn’t get information about the payment on time. This meant they counted it as income after they had already given you a benefit payment.

The person who was supposed to get the payment has died, and their benefit is ending.

Any other reasons that the government decides to add later.

In this law, a ‘computer system’ means the electronic system used to share information about child support payments. A ‘problem’ with this system includes when it can’t share information with MSD.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS867384.

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Part 6 Administration
Review of entitlement to, or rate of, benefit granted

304AGrounds for review of whether person’s information share child support payment is or was their weekly income

  1. For the purposes of section 304(1A), the specified grounds are that MSD is satisfied of all or any of the following:

  2. the person did not receive all or any of the payment before or on the deemed receipt (as defined in clause 15D of Schedule 3):
    1. the person is or was unable to access all or any of the payment for reasons that are or include exceptional circumstances:
      1. MSD has charged under Part 3A of Schedule 3 an amount of weekly income that is not the correct amount for reasons that are or include all or any of the following:
        1. the information share is incorrect due to an error by the Commissioner or an officer of the Department (as those terms are defined in the Tax Administration Act 1994):
          1. the information share is correct but read incorrectly by an automated electronic system:
            1. the information share is correct but due to a person’s error is inputted incorrectly into a system used by MSD:
            2. a person has been incorrectly identified, or not identified, as the proper recipient of the payment (whether that mis- or non-identification was by an automated electronic system or a person):
              1. for reasons that are or include a disruption to an automated electronic system, information about the payment is not shared with MSD on the transaction date (as defined in clause 15C of Schedule 3), with the result that the payment is charged as weekly income under Part 3A of Schedule 3 after an affected benefit payment, or other assistance payment, has been made:
                1. the person to whom the payment was made has died, and their benefit—
                  1. is specified in section 326(1)(a) to (h); and
                    1. will end, or has ended, under section 326(2) or (3):
                    2. any 1 or more additional grounds prescribed, for the purposes of this paragraph, by regulations made under section 418(1)(ja).

                      1. In this section,—

                        automated electronic system means an automated electronic system used under subpart 5A

                          disruption, to an automated electronic system, includes, without limitation, a disruption to disclosure to MSD of all or any information used in or by the system.

                          Notes
                          • Section 304A: inserted, on , by section 33 of the Child Support (Pass On) Acts Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 27).