Cost of living payment

Revenue Minister David Parker discusses a bill which would set out principles of fairness in the tax system (video first published in May). The Government has ...

They work for you, not the parties or people in power. Whatever your politics, we can all agree: New Zealand is better off when Kiwis are well-informed. * I acknowledge that they will not achieve perfection because Inland Revenue’s data can never be perfect,” he said. The money was intended to take the sting out of [soaring costs for everyday items](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128417345/finance-minister-under-pressure-after-new-figures-confirm-soaring-cost-of-living).

Revenue Minister David Parker has made changes to the cost-of-living payment ahead of the next $116 round of payments being paid out.

About 800,000 people who were eligible for the payment did not claim it at first. • A part-year tax return for the 2021-22 tax year, with situation "departing New Zealand". "Of course, if any of these people have been earning wages in New Zealand recently, or receiving Working for Families, they will still get the payment automatically," he said. Parker said the Government would be making "tweaks" to the payment to make it more difficult for people living overseas to claim the payment. "This might apply, for example, to people who have been overseas for more than six months with a student loan, or have filed a non-resident tax return," Parker said. The Government will refine the "screening tests" for the eligibility of the payment, like checking to see whether they had logged in to their online IRD account from overseas in the last tax year, or whether a non-resident individual income tax return had been filed in the last tax year.

A one-off, doubled cost-of-living payment being dished out by the South Australian government will provide some relief to concession holders and low-income ...

"This is the biggest single concession payment that has been delivered to the pockets of South Australians in history. Ms Fox said raising the rate of the JobSeeker allowance and payments to the lowest income earners would make a "big difference". "It is nice to have that bit of buffer zone, not needing to look at it every week and work out every single cent, knowing that worst comes to worst, I've got that money in the bank," Mr Matthews said.

Revenue Minister David Parker has made changes to the cost-of-living payment ahead of the next $116 round of payments being paid out. Parker said the Gover.

About 800,000 people who were eligible for the payment did not claim it at first. - A part-year tax return for the 2021-22 tax year, with situation "departing New Zealand". "Requiring some people to confirm they are in New Zealand is a result of the extra screening put in place by Inland Revenue - which improves the accuracy of the data they are using," Parker said.

It's a sunny Monday in Tāmaki Makaurau and welcome to The Spinoff's live updates. I'm Stewart Sowman-Lund, you can reach me via email on ...

As a result of that extra screening some people will now need to confirm they are living in New Zealand. Revenue minister David Parker said the refinements to the payment related to implementation rather than eligibility. However, a number of overseas New Zealanders received the first payment at the start of August.

The Government copped criticism when ineligible New Zealanders living overseas and a small number of deceased people received the first instalment.

The initiative, which is projected to cost $816 million, was announced in Budget 2022. By August 29, 4782 people had opted out. [requested an independent investigation](https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/02/nats-call-for-review-into-embarrassing-cost-of-living-error/) of the $350 cost of living payment, wanting to determine the scale of the issue. [August 1](https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/01/cost-of-living-support-payments-begin-today/). [voluntarily opted out](https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/02/more-than-2000-ineligible-kiwis-opt-out-of-cost-of-living-payment/) of the cost of living payment. [reduce the likelihood of overseas New Zealanders receiving the payment](https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/04/opinion-errors-put-dampener-on-cost-of-living-sweetener/).

With the second $116 payment expected to be made from Thursday, Revenue Minister David Parker has announced changes that will mean some eligible people have ...

and it would have taken many months to process the millions of people that needed to be processed." "Of course, the rushed law could have been avoided if only the government had taken a much simpler approach. We think that we have got some better data sets to scrub the data that we've already got." I also encourage Inland Revenue to remind ineligible recipients that they are obliged to repay any payment received immediately." People in prison or who already receive the winter energy payment were ineligible. They won't always be, because in respect for example of that student loan data people are not recorded as being in New Zealand until they've been back for more than six months."

That includes looking for where an overseas IP address has been used to log into Inland Revenue's website, or where a non-resident individual income tax return ...

Watch: Some Kiwis overseas have received the Government's cost of living payment despite not paying tax here for years. Credits: Video - Newshub; Image - Getty ...

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will front her post-Cabinet press conference after the Auditor-General criticised the rollout of the cost of living payment f.

money has gone to people who were not eligible for it," Willis said. The other options were to get people to apply, which she thought would have meant those in most need of it missed out. They have a moral obligation to answer," she said. The Minister of Revenue has been quoted by media as saying that it could be around 1 per cent of payments. These include greater use of data to ensure people receiving the payment are actually eligible and in New Zealand. This is, in my view, unacceptable," he wrote. "Ultimately we always seek to make sure those who are eligible receive it. The second payment is due to go out this week. National's Nicola Willis wanted the Government to investigate how many ineligible people received the payment and to apologise for the sloppy rollout. Yes." She said she disagreed with the Auditor-General's assertion that the criteria was not clear, saying it was very clear and the issue was how it was tested. Ardern said it was the Government's duty to help people though the cost of living crisis.

The Government has made some “tweaks” to its cost of living payment roll-out in the hope it will stop Kiwis living overseas getting the money.

They work for you, not the parties or people in power. The money was intended to take the sting out of [soaring costs for everyday items](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128417345/finance-minister-under-pressure-after-new-figures-confirm-soaring-cost-of-living). I acknowledge that they will not achieve perfection because Inland Revenue’s data can never be perfect,” he said. Whatever your politics, we can all agree: New Zealand is better off when Kiwis are well-informed. This is, in my view, unacceptable,” he wrote. A person has to be in the country to get the payment, be earning up to $70,000 and not receiving a main benefit. [London expats, French backpackers and dead people](https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300650533/overseas-kiwis-who-get-cost-of-living-payment-in-error-wont-be-chased-inland-revenue-says) that the Government had not done the work to ensure that only eligible New Zealanders could get the payment,” she said. Parker on Monday announced the IRD would do further “screening tests” – including confirmation the person lives in New Zealand – to reduce the likelihood of the money going to the wrong people ahead of the second instalment on Thursday. The IRD had earlier advised Parker and Finance Minister Grant Robertson that its information might not be up-to-date, that it could not verify whether someone was living at the New Zealand address recorded in Inland Revenue’s system, and that there was a risk that some people might receive the payment who should not, he said. “Inland Revenue told my staff that it is doing some work to improve the accuracy of future payments, but does not know, and may never know, how many ineligible people might have received the payment. [Fewer than 1% of people](https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300650533/overseas-kiwis-who-get-cost-of-living-payment-in-error-wont-be-chased-inland-revenue-says) received the first of three $116 instalments in error in August, some of whom were overseas. [cost of living payment](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300646055/cheat-sheet-the-cost-of-living-payment-millions-are-set-to-receive) would go to ineligible people, the Auditor-General says.

Parker said "we'll never know" how many ineligible people will receive the upcoming payment.

We have written to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and Nicola Willis MP about matters relating to the Cost of Living Payment (COLP).

People who want to come here, and/or want to stay here, are being driven away by the short-sighted chaotic and inhumane approach we take to the granting of permanent residency... If only we could take one tenth of the energy we currently expend on worrying about what Ian Foster’s coaching policies are doing to the All Blacks, and feed it into the national grid. We’d be far better off putting some of that energy into worrying about the harms that our current immigration settings are doing to the nation. After the first payment was made on 1 August 2022, we became aware of reports that payments had been made to people who did not meet the eligibility criteria. Join us and support the publication of trustworthy, relevant, public interest news, freely accessible to all New Zealanders: However, in our view, good stewardship of public money required greater care when designing and implementing the COLP – ensuring that the criteria were clear and that the data used was adequate.

The National Party is urging the government to apologise after the auditor-general's ruling on the distribution of payments to help low and middle income ...

"Where the ... would've been better if they were there for the first payment as well as this second and subsequent payment." They've become so loose and sloppy with taxpayer cash that they didn't think twice about the fact that French backpackers, London investment bankers, deceased persons would receive this payment. ["This is a $116 payment, the administration of which should not cost more that $116 otherwise it is a waste of money" - Revenue Minister David Parker duration 7:38](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856639/revenue-minister-defends-cost-of-living-payments) ["This is a $116 payment, the administration of which should not cost more that $116 otherwise it is a waste of money" - Revenue Minister David Parker](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856639/revenue-minister-defends-cost-of-living-payments) "This is a $116 payment, the administration of which should not cost more that $116 otherwise it is a waste of money." ["Ministers were warned that this payment would go to people who weren't eligible, and they didn't blink" - National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis duration 5:47](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856616/national-party-on-second-cost-of-living-payment-going-out) ["Ministers were warned that this payment would go to people who weren't eligible, and they didn't blink" - National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856616/national-party-on-second-cost-of-living-payment-going-out)

Minister David Parker says 31,000 people won't get the second payment until they confirm they're in New Zealand. He told Mike Hosking the Auditor-General's ...

- Publish Date - Author Revenue Minister accepts criticism of the cost of living payment

The National Party is urging the government to apologise after the auditor-general's ruling on the distribution of payments to help low and middle income ...

"Where the ... would've been better if they were there for the first payment as well as this second and subsequent payment." They've become so loose and sloppy with taxpayer cash that they didn't think twice about the fact that French backpackers, London investment bankers, deceased persons would receive this payment. ["This is a $116 payment, the administration of which should not cost more that $116 otherwise it is a waste of money" - Revenue Minister David Parker duration 7:38](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856639/revenue-minister-defends-cost-of-living-payments) ["This is a $116 payment, the administration of which should not cost more that $116 otherwise it is a waste of money" - Revenue Minister David Parker](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856639/revenue-minister-defends-cost-of-living-payments) "This is a $116 payment, the administration of which should not cost more that $116 otherwise it is a waste of money." ["Ministers were warned that this payment would go to people who weren't eligible, and they didn't blink" - National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis duration 5:47](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856616/national-party-on-second-cost-of-living-payment-going-out) ["Ministers were warned that this payment would go to people who weren't eligible, and they didn't blink" - National Party finance spokesperson Nicola Willis](/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018856616/national-party-on-second-cost-of-living-payment-going-out)