Kate Day
[FYI request #16286 email]
Tēnā koe Kate Day
On  4 August 2021,  you emailed the Ministry of Social Development (the Ministry)
requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following
information:
1. The number of Community Service Card holders nationally
2. The number of Community Service Card holders in Greater Wellington, and
3. The number of Community Service Card holders in Greater Wellington who
also have a Gold Card (ie. are aged 65+).
On 10 August 2021, the Ministry emailed you to clarify the information you were
requesting to ensure the information being provided to you was what you were
seeking. The Ministry recommended you refine your request to a specific period and
advised you that once your request was refined, the Ministry would treat your  clarified
request as a new request that replaces the original request under section 15(1AA) of
the Act.
On the same day, you replied to the Ministry asking for the data of the above requested
information to be as at the end of June 2021, or for the most recent month that the
data is available.
A Community Services Card is available to low or middle income earners to enable
them and their family to access subsidised health services. The Senior Support Centre
is responsible for determining if a client qualifies for a Community Services Card, and
for the distribution and administration of the card. Clients receiving an income-tested
benefit are automatically issued a Community Services Card.
You can find more information regarding Community Services Cards at the following
link:www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/card-services/community-services-
card/introduction.html.
Please see enclosed Appendix A, which contains the following two tables:
•
Table One: The current number of Community Services Cards nationally, as at
30 June 2021.
•
Table Two: The current number of Community Services Cards only and the
number of Community Services Cards plus Super Gold Cards, in the Wellington
region, as at 30 June 2021, by Territorial Location Authority (TLA) and type.
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The principles and purposes of the Official Information Act 1982 under which you made
your request are:
• to  create  greater  openness  and  transparency  about  the  plans,  work  and
activities of the Government,
• to increase the ability of  the  public  to  participate  in  the  making  and
administration of our laws and policies and
• to lead to greater accountability in the conduct of public affairs.
This Ministry fully supports those principles and purposes. The Ministry therefore
intends to make the information contained in this letter and any attached documents
available to the wider public. The Ministry will do this by publishing this letter on the
Ministry of Social Development’s website. Your personal details will be deleted, and
the Ministry will not publish any information that would identify you as the person who
requested the information.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email].
If you are not satisfied with this response regarding Community Service Card holders,
you  have  the  right  to  seek  an  investigation  and  review  by  the  Ombudsman.
Information
about
how
to
make
a
complaint
is
available
at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
Bridget Saunders
Manager, Issues Resolution
Service Delivery
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The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wel ington  • Telephone 0-4-916 3300 • Facsimile 0-4-918 0099

Appendix A.
Table One: The current number of Community Services Cards nationally, as at 30 June 2021.
Community Services Card Type
Number
Community Services Card Only - No Super Gold Card
747,921
Super Gold plus Community Services Card
332,232
Total
1,080,153
Table Two: The Current number of Community Services Cards only and the number of Community Services Cards
plus Super Gold Cards, in the Wellington region, as at 30 June 2021, by Territorial Location Authority (TLA) and
type.
TLA name
Community Services Card Type
Community Services Card Only - No Super Gold Card  Community Services Card plus Super Gold Card
Kapiti Coast District
6,447
5,718
Lower Hutt City
15,312
6,933
Porirua City
9,102
2,997
Upper Hutt City
5,292
3,234
Wellington City
23,862
7,071
Total
60,018
25,953
Notes for all tables.
•
Community Services Cards includes cards in Wel ington Region. Does not include children on Orphans and Unsupported Child benefits, and Child
Disability Al owance.
•
A Community Services Card is issued to both members of a couple. In this report both members are counted.
•
To protect confidentiality the Ministry of Social Development uses processes to make it difficult to identify an individual person or entity from published
data.
•
These data tables have had random rounding to base three applied to al  cel  counts in the table.
•
A value of 1 to 5 may be suppressed with an 'S'.
•
The impact of applying random rounding is that columns and rows may not add exactly to the given column or row totals.
•
The published counts wil  never differ by more than two counts.
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Document Outline