New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Legislation Amendment Bill

I think perhaps this time I’ll take a different tack and I will start out by explaining what Part 2 does. So Part 2 extends several of the policy changes applied to New Zealand superannuation by Part 1 to the veteran’s pension. These changes are the closure of the non-qualifying partner provision, with grandparenting of existing non-qualifying partners; expanding eligibility to single people in self-contained mobile homes; updating the calculation of the veterans pension rates to match the current practice; and a signpost has been included near the beginning of Part 6 of the Veterans’ Support Act to indicate its relationship with the Social Security Act as well.

Clause 29 closes the option for a veterans pension to include their non-qualifying partner. Accompanying the change in Part 1, clause 29 removes the election that allows a veterans pensioner to include their non-qualifying partner in their rate of veterans pension from the commencement date. People who are already included, including their non-qualifying partner in their rate, at that point, have their entitlement to receive that rate continued by new Part 5 in Schedule 1, as inserted by clause 32. Many of the details about this grandparenting provision are linked to the equivalent provision in the actual Act.

Clauses 24 and 26 remove an obsolete rate that applied to people who included a non-qualifying partner before October 1991. Clause 25 provides single people living alone in mobile homes with access to the single living alone rate to veterans pension. Mirroring the change to Part 1, clause 25 amends the definition of living alone for the veterans pension so that people can receive the living alone rate (LAR) while living alone in a self-contained mobile home.

Clause 31 allows new types of accommodation where someone can receive the LAR to be set out in regulations. Clause 27 updates the calculation of veterans pension rates to match current practice. Clause 27 requires that the amount of veterans pension of a couple who both qualify must be no less than 66 percent of the net average ordinary time weekly wage, reflecting what has been a longstanding practice. Supplementary Order Paper 508 also amends a reference to the commencement date, so Supplementary Order Paper 508 updates a reference to the commencement date in clause 32 to 9  November 2020.

Thank you, Mr Chair. I specifically want to raise a query with the Minister for Social Development on her recent Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) around the commencement date. As has been stated in the House, the National Opposition are supporting the legislation, but we actually didn’t support the Minister’s SOP to delay the start of this. I think, if we look through the submissions, they were, by and large, in favour of the changes that were made. So my question, very directly, is: why the delay, Minister?

I think that debate comes up in clause—

💬 Hon Louise Upston: The Minister referred to it.

💬 Hon Carmel Sepuloni: I don’t mind answering.

CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Oh, sorry. My mistake.

Yeah, sure. So I don’t mind answering that question. Really, some of the work that the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has been undertaking had to be delayed during the COVID period, and so it was a direct impact of all the other work that they’ve had to take on as part of our COVID response. So there has been a delay in this work. We have been busy with things like the wage subsidy, the income relief payment, and the demand that we’ve seen come to MSD during this time, as well as doing things like implementing apprenticeships alongside the Ministry of Education. So they have been quite busy. This is the earliest date that they could give for commencement, and so I thought that was fair and reasonable, and that is the date that we’ve been given.

I will say that I do find it to be quite interesting that, on one hand, we’ve got questions being raised about why this needs to come through here in urgency, and then, on the other hand, we’ve got a member of the same party saying we shouldn’t be delaying this for any reason.

Thank you, Mr Chair. I’d just like a point of clarification from the Minister on section 159(2), amended by clause 25. Under “Meaning of living alone”, we’ve got various modes of accommodation listed there in that section. Under paragraph (f), we’ve got “a mobile home … that VANZ”—Veterans Affairs New Zealand—“is satisfied is sufficiently self-contained”. I just want to ask the Minister why it is we’ve decided that it is Veterans Affairs that makes that decision, and not the Ministry of Social Development, in terms of the satisfaction of that. Could I just get some clarification on that, thank you.

My understanding is it is both, but when we’re looking at the carryovers to what applies to New Zealand super and then, of course, to the veterans pension, then both have to be able to make that determination. So therefore, as I mentioned earlier, there are some things that have to be reflected in Part 2 with respect to the Veterans’ Support Act so that we have consistency in terms of treatment, regardless of whether someone is receiving New Zealand superannuation or the actual veterans pension.

The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 508 in the name of the Hon Carmel Sepuloni to Part 2 be agreed to.