14 February 2022

Brendon Mills
[FYI request #18084 email]

Tēnā koe Brendon Mills

On  3 January 2021,  you emailed the Ministry of Social Development (the
Ministry) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982  (the Act), the
following information:
•  Studies have been done into the rate of poverty/hardship among those
affected when the age of eligibility for NZ Superannuation was raised
from 60 to 65 from 1992 to 2001.
The Ministry has performed a digital search and could not locate any studies
which are specific to the topic you have requested. Some information
embedded within policy advice, reports, or other documents may exist,
however, due to the large time period of your request, substantial manual
collation would be required to locate and prepare all documents within scope
of your request. The Ministry would need to divert personnel from their core
duties and allocate extra time to complete this search. The diversion of these
resources would impair the Ministry’s ability to continue standard operations
and would be an inefficient use of the Ministry’s resources.
As such, I refuse your request under section 18(f) of the Official Information
Act. The greater public interest is in the effective and efficient administration
of the public service.
I have considered whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your
request given extra time,  or the ability to charge for the information
requested.  I have concluded that, in either case, the Ministry’s ability to
undertake its work would still be prejudiced.
A small amount of information regarding the rate of poverty for the period
you have requested can be found in the following academic paper hosted on
the Ministry website here:
www.msd.govt.nz/about-msd-and-our-
work/publications-resources/journals-and-magazines/social-policy-journal/
spj20/assessing-the-progress-on-poverty-reduction-20-pages197-222.html.
Rate of poverty information was derived from the Household Economic
Survey which is collated and published by Stats NZ  here:
www.stats.govt.nz/az-of-information-releases.

For historical or archived HES information, please contact Stats NZ.
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.
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,  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
Harry Fenton
Policy Manager
Seniors
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