NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE, No. 85

4 JULY 2013

Schedule

Clause 11

Consequential amendments

Direction in relation to Special Benefit (given on 10 February 1999)¹

Clause 2.1

In clause 2.1, definition of chargeable income, paragraph (f)(iii), after “of the Act”, insert “under the Work Bonus Programme,”.

Special Needs Grants Programme (as established and approved on 18 December 1998)²

Clause 7.3

In clause 7.3, after “Seasonal Work Assistance Programme”, insert “or the Work Bonus Programme”.

Transition to Work Grant Programme (as established and approved on 23 January 2007)³

New clause 9(1A)

In clause 9, after subclause (1), insert:

“(1A) Subclause (1)(c) is subject to clause 10(3).”

New clause 10(3)

In clause 10, after subclause (2), insert:

“(3) If the applicant is receiving work bonus payments under the Work Bonus Programme established and approved under section 124(1)(d) of the Act in respect of the cancellation or termination of a working age benefit, any grant under this programme for bridging finance under clause 9(1)(c) is affected as follows:

(a) the grant is not payable if the total amount of the work bonus payments in the first 2 weeks following the date of the last payment of the working-age benefit is equal to or more than $500.00;

(b) if paragraph (a) does not apply, each dollar of the amount of the grant payable in respect of a week is reduced by each whole dollar amount of the work bonus payment payable in that week.”

Dated at Wellington this 24th day of June 2013.

HON PAULA BENNETT, Minister for Social Development.

Explanatory Note

This note is not part of the programme, but is intended to indicate its general effect.

This welfare programme under the Social Security Act 1964 (“the Act”) provides (subject to certain restrictions) for grants of special assistance called a work bonus as an incentive for specified beneficiaries who do not have work-test obligations under the Act to move into employment, or increase their hours of work, and thereby cease to receive a main benefit under the Act. A work bonus payment is not payable if the benefit was suspended or not payable under the Act before it was cancelled, except where it was suspended or not payable because of:

• a sanction of suspension or reduction under section 117 of the Act;
• participation of the beneficiary or his or her spouse or partner in temporary employment;
• a warrant to arrest of the beneficiary’s spouse or partner.

The amount of each work bonus payment is equivalent to the unabated weekly amount of the beneficiary’s specified benefit before its cancellation reduced by $100.00 for each subsequent week of its payment, but is nil if it reduces to less than $10.00. However, where a specified benefit paid at a work-test married rate was not payable or suspended because of a warrant to arrest of the beneficiary’s spouse or partner, the amount payable is half that amount.

Clause 11 and the Schedule make consequential amendments to a Ministerial direction and welfare programmes under the Act.

¹New Zealand Gazette, 16 December 1999, No. 193, page 4599

²New Zealand Gazette, 28 January 1999, No. 8, page 202

³New Zealand Gazette, 1 February 2007, No. 10, page 215

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Direction Setting Approval Criteria for Specified Early Childhood Education Programmes for Purposes of Social Obligations Under the Social Security Act 1964

To: The Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development.

Pursuant to section 5 of the Social Security Act 1964, the Minister for Social Development, by this instrument, gives the following direction.

Direction

1. Title—This direction is the direction setting approval criteria for specified early childhood education programmes for purposes of social obligations under the Social Security Act 1964.

2. Commencement—This direction comes into effect on 15 July 2013.

3. Interpretation—(1) In this direction:

Act means the Social Security Act 1964

ECE means early-childhood education in an approved early childhood education programme (as defined in Regulation 3(1) of the Social Security (Childcare Assistance Regulations 2004 made under section 132AC of the Act)

government priorities relating to ECE and vulnerable children means:

(a) facilitating children’s participation in ECE; and

(b) having policies and procedures to prevent, identify and report child abuse and neglect; and

(c) having policies and procedures to ensure that children are not placed at risk through the delivery of the programme

positive educational outcomes for children means facilitating children’s mental, social, physical, and emotional development, and receptiveness to learning in preparation for moving into ECE or school

supervised, in relation to an early childhood education programme, means:

(a) the parents or caregivers of the children to whom the programme is provided are periodically visited and provided with ongoing support by the programme provider to ensure the effective delivery of the programme; and

(b) the programme provider provides adequate supervision of its employees, contractors, or volunteers who visit parents and caregivers of children for that purpose; and

(c) each child’s progress and participation in the programme is recorded and monitored

specific learning outcomes means a planned framework for delivery of the programme to children on a regular basis.

(2) Terms otherwise defined in section 3(1) of the Act have the same meanings in this direction.

4. Approval of early childhood education programmes under section 60RAB(1)(b): criteria—In the exercise of your power under section 60RAB(1)(b) of the Act to approve an early childhood education programme as a recognised early childhood programme for the purposes of the social obligations in section 60RA(3)(a)(i) or (b)(i)