The government is coming under further pressure over its cost-of-living payment rollout - this time because it is reaching far fewer people than advertised.
Revenue Minister David Parker says National's policies would have offered far less to vulnerable New Zealand families and far more to people living overseas. Photo: RNZ/ Dom Thomas
The National Party has been criticising the payment to non-beneficiary New Zealanders earning under $70,000 a year, after reports of several people who were living overseas had been given the first $116 instalment.
Revenue Minister David Parker told RNZ yesterday the government did not know how many ineligible people may have received the payment.
In a statement today, Inland Revenue (IRD) explained it did not have a firm estimate of how many people overseas may have received it.
"We base someone's eligibility on the information we hold at the time of assessing their eligibility. In some instances, residential information may be out of date if customers haven't advised us they have left New Zealand."
Since it announced the payment at the Budget in May the government has consistently claimed more than 2.1 million people would be eligible, but the department today confirmed just over 1.4 million had met the eligibility criteria so far.
Of those, just over 1.3 million had received it - about 800,000 fewer than the 2.1 million claimed. Some 137,000 missed out because the department did not have bank account information for them.
National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis described the situation as an "absolute dog's breakfast", and the government was being misleading with the 2.1 million number.
"Ministers need to account for themselves in that regard. And I want to know why they aren't across the details of this. We're talking about hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars," she said.
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"Ministers seem very unaware of where it's going or who's getting it. All they're doing is shoving money out the door without regard to who's actually receiving it."
She would not go so far as to say Parker should be removed from the revenue portfolio, only that he should "take responsibility".
"We have yo-pros in London and expats in Dubai benefiting from taxpayer dollars at a time when many New Zealanders are doing it really tough, and many New Zealanders are missing out on this payment," she said.
"Ultimately it will be up to the prime minister to determine what ministerial mistakes have been made here, what is clear is that ministers were warned."
Willis this morning said she would be writing to the Auditor-General calling for an investigation into the rollout of the payment.
However, Parker was adamant the payment would - eventually - reach about 2.1 million people.
"The 2.1 [million] number remains correct, but people don't become eligible until they've filed their tax return and provided other information to Inland Revenue. So don't take the bait on people who say that the 1.3 million is the total - it's not and it was never going to be."
The shortfall, he said, was because people were only eligible if they earned $70,000 or less in the year ended 31 March.
"Obviously Inland Revenue can only calculate that after people file their tax return. For most people now that is done automatically but people on IR3 returns and the like file on a different timetable, as do some people who use tax agents. But that's always been known," he said.
He was comfortable with the errors on the margins.
"We obviously prefer if there's none, but the only alternative is wasting money on further administrative costs that would cost more. So yes, I'm confident that [Inland] Revenue and the government have chosen to do it in the right way."
He put a red line under National's proposal saying tax cuts it would give much more money to those overseas, and less to those who needed it, than Labour's.
"The National Party would have you believe that their alternative, which was tax cuts of tens of thousands of dollars for chief executives and $2 a week to someone on the minimum wage is better than what we're doing. They're patently wrong," he said.
"They would also give tax breaks to overseas landlords by reversing some of our interest rules that would pay far more money to overseas-based taxpayers than this issue at the margin of the way we're doing it."
In its statement, the IRD said it would continue running eligibility checks every day.
"We expect the number of people meeting the eligibility criteria to increase towards the 2.1 million over time, as 2022 income tax assessment are finalised; IR3 income tax returns are completed; and, partners of Working for Families recipients have their returns finalised."
The spokesperson said ineligible people who had received the money could return it, and there was also an opt-out option.
"We have seen an increase in web traffic and myIR logons. Overall our systems are performing well, and as intended."
Photo: Supplied