April 2025 Quarterly Newsletter

by Cynthia Hancox, National Government Liaison, email govtliaison@nchenz.org.nz

6 monthly declarations and allowance forms: By now, everyone should have received the 6-monthly declaration and supervision allowance forms for the Jan-Jun period. Don’t forget to sign and return them! If they are returned to the Ministry by 16th May, payments will be made in the week of 16th-20th June. If you have not received your forms, and your children had existing exemption prior to 12th February, then contact Resourcing to ask for the forms. If any of your exemptions were granted/started from 12th February onwards, your regional office is responsible for sending the part-period declarations to you. Contact them if you’re missing these documents. In either case, don’t forget to quote your family reference number (found on your exemption certificates).

Exemption applications for 5-year-olds: Since June 2015, it has been Ministry policy that exemption applications may be submitted any time after a child turns 5, to be processed per normal, but with the exemption coming into force from the child’s 6th birthday. During the pandemic, when regional staff were processing unprecedented numbers of applications, it was understandable that they gave priority to more urgent applications. However, since things are more or less back to normal, we are seeing some regional offices refuse to process applications for 5-year-olds, either asking parents to resubmit the applications closer to the 6th birthday, or just “sitting on them” until then. Neither is aligned with the above policy, which remains in place. I have written to the Ministry about this, outlining the history of this policy and the reasons for it, and urging them to ensure all regional offices continue to accept and process these applications. I am awaiting a response.

Regional offices asking for phone calls or meetings: When a family submits an exemption application, as staff process the application, they may feel that additional information is needed in order to satisfy the requirements. In such cases they are required to let the family know what additional information they need, and the family has up to 28 days to provide this. The usual method of doing this is to write to the family with a list of questions. In some cases, regional staff may attempt to phone a family to discuss, but this should always be followed up with written questions unless it’s a simple matter easily dealt with over the phone. In all cases however, the family has the right to decide how they prefer to be communicated with. You do not have to speak to regional staff over the phone if you prefer not to. You certainly do not have to provide answers to all their questions over the phone if you would prefer some time to think them through and write a response (recommended). Recently there have been staff in some regional offices who have been insisting upon a phone call (even when more info is not needed) or meetings with families. There are rare instances when a meeting may actually be helpful or beneficial, but this should not be a routine part of any application, and families should be informed why they want to meet and what is to be discussed; families have the right to refuse to meet, or to determine where a meeting would take place, if they agree to it. A phone call is NOT a required part of all applications; if your local office is insisting upon this when you have indicated you would prefer to communicate by email, please let us know by emailing govtliaison@nchenz.org.nz.

The Ministry have several internal documents which guide the way in which staff carry out their duties. One of these is their Practice Guidance, which states as a first point, under the heading of “Assessment” (of applications): “Review the application, if additional information is needed to support the application, discuss with the applicant how they would prefer to supply this information (phone conversation, email, face to face or in a visit to their home).” [emphasis mine]. Regional staff need to abide by the law, policy, and their own guidelines, and should not be taking actions which are not in accordance with these, including insisting on phone calls or similar. In some cases, it is managers who have decided that this is a “good idea” and staff are simply doing as directed. If you don’t wish to speak to staff by phone (or in person), simply communicate this calmly and politely, and that should be an end to the matter. If however, they insist, then you may wish to get some support from our Government Liaison team or seek further advice. We want to see regional offices abiding by policy and for there to be consistency in the way in which applications are processed around the country. This is something NCHENZ has advocated for over many years. Unfortunately, there have been huge changes in staff and internal restructures over the past couple of years, resulting in a resurgence of inconsistencies. Each one of us can play a part in having fair and consistent process, both for ourselves and those who come after us, by not giving in to inappropriate requests from the Ministry.