MSD says Jobseeker and Sole Parent payments may have been wrongly stopped

The Ministry of Social Development has confirmed people on Jobseeker Support and Sole Parent Support may also have had payments wrongly stopped in its backlog, but it will not say how many.

Its review of a law error and processing delays found more than 30,000 welfare payments were incorrectly paused, according to RNZ. Jobseeker Support is the main benefit for people looking for work. Sole Parent Support is the main benefit for sole parents caring for young children.

The ministry has not said how many people on those two benefits were affected, how long they went without payment, or what the total backpay bill is.

MSD said it checked 51,000 client files to find who might have been affected. That check only covered people who have to regularly confirm their details, which Jobseeker Support and Sole Parent Support recipients do not have to do.

Service delivery general manager Shannon Soughtton said "some clients receiving other main benefits may have been impacted by processing delays during this period." MSD confirmed Jobseeker Support and Sole Parent Support recipients may have been caught up in the backlog.

So far the counted group is more than 2,400 people on main benefits, mostly on Supported Living Payment, the benefit for people with a long-term health condition or disability, who had payments stopped and later backpaid. A separate review found MSD payment errors topped $2.5 million and affected thousands of people, according to RNZ. Debbie Power is the chief executive of the ministry.

Social Development Minister Louise Upston apologised to people who had payments wrongly stopped because of processing delays at MSD. It took her 19 days to apologise, according to a timeline compiled by Stuff.

The current errors follow earlier accuracy problems. RNZ reported in 2024 that nearly one in four people on a benefit could be getting the wrong amount, as noted by The Spinoff. An earlier sample reported in 2023 found the ministry was not paying almost half of the people on a benefit the right amount.

MSD data released to RNZ showed nine people who did not meet a benefit rule were given a non-financial penalty, while thousands had their benefit cut, according to RNZ.

The broader context here is the gap between what MSD has counted and what it has checked. It has a headline number for paused payments and a file count for its review, but the review method leaves out the two largest work-tested benefits by design. In my view, that leaves ministers, the Opposition and MPs asking questions in select committee, the groups of MPs that scrutinise agencies, without a clear number of people affected, how long they missed payments, or the cost for Jobseeker Support and Sole Parent Support. The political risk now sits less in the apology and more in whether a further check can put firm numbers on who missed out and for how long.