23OIA2395 response for TLO.pdf

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20 July 2023

TLO
[FYI request #23097 email]

Dear TLO

Thank you for your request made under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA), received
on 12 June 2023. You requested:
1)
Why does the Inland Revenue department deliberately lie, mislead kiwis by
informing and notifying sole parents that their child support payments have been
paid direct to Work & Income?
2)
Is it acceptable that kiwis believe their child support entitlements is has was paid
direct to MSD when in fact it actually hasn’t and instead it has been retained by the
crown in full. Do you accept this deliberately misleads NZers?
3)
Do you intend to update the MYIR system to reflect updated accurate info all the
time so kiwis are not misled?
4)
Does the IRD know or have any knowledge of how many customers, IRD staff
engaged with since April 1 2022 re child support and their entitlements having been
paid direct to MSD.
5)
Can you please provide me with a copy of all data and any supporting documents,
notes, meta data related to child support payments in general.
On 21 June 2023, you amended question 5 of your OIA request to:
( … ) Please provide all data related to:
6)
Collection of child support payments from one parent to IRD. (total amount
paid by one parent and collected by the crown to support kids.. all info for the
last 5-6 financial years since labour have been in government).
7)
The total distribution/payout of those funds collected being paid direct to the
child via their primary parent/caregiver/guardian.
a)  So basically how much of child support funds actually went to support
the development or early childhood for which the payment was collected
and paid for in the first place?
8)
Policy & decision making records, dates and file notes including internal
communications, minutes, emails to or from executive management,
commissioner, minister/government related to child support.
9)
Records of complaints received, investigated, resolved in the last 5-6 years
related to child support.
10)  I want to know how many New Zealand citizens reached out and enquired
about their child support and who were deliberately misled and told to contact
MSD because it was paid to MSD.
a)  I want to know  if IRD accept that they wasted kiwis time and cause
significant distress and frustration by referring individuals to MSD.
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Provide all information related to this. If you cannot I suggest you do
the hard mahi and investigate then get back to me with an answer.
b)  How many people called to discuss child support every day, week,
month and year? Please answer each.
c)  Then tell me how frequently IRD refer these individuals to MSD —
keeping in mind IRD have notified the customer that their child support
payment was paid directly to MSD.
11)  How much child support money is transfer moved between MSD & IRD accounts
on the daily, weekly, monthly and per annum?
12)  Also be sure to include all decision making process data/information notes
especially related to child support payment collections and disbursements I
want to see all the notes and advice given from senior executives including
ministers or the government so I can determine or understand whether or not
the laws were applied correctly. I want everything related to child support.
Questions 1, 2, and 10a
Questions which require an agency to form an opinion or provide an explanation are not
considered a request for official information, and are therefore not subject to the provisions
of the OIA.
All government departments are part of the Crown. Money is not transferred from Inland
Revenue’s bank account to the Ministry of Social Development’s (MSD) account.
Question 3
Inland Revenue has noted your comments and will amend the wording in myIR. Inland
Revenue is continuously working to improve its services to its customers.
For receiving carers, myIR  shows up-to-date information about their child support
entitlement and any payments that have been made to them. For receiving carers who
are beneficiaries, myIR sets out their entitlement, the amount that has been retained by
the Crown to offset their benefit, and the amount of child support in excess of their benefit
that has been paid to them.
For  liable  parents,  myIR  does not show a breakdown of payment distribution. This is
because to do so would breach the receiving carer’s privacy.
Question 4
Inland Revenue is  unable to provide this  information as we do not record customer
contacts to the level of detail requested. This part of your request is therefore refused
under  section  18(g)  of the OIA, as  the information  requested  is not held by Inland
Revenue and I do not believe that the information is held by or more closely connected
with the functions of another agency.
However, Inland Revenue can advise that, from 1 April 2022 to 31 May 2023, it received
79,751 web messages about child support and answered 158,957 calls about child support.
Questions 6 and 7
The following table shows child support payments collected from liable parents, the
amounts retained by the Crown, and the amounts paid to receiving carers for the last six
financial years.
The table shows child support payments to all carers (not just payments where the carer
may be receiving a benefit).

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Financial
Collected from
Retained by the
Distributed to
year
parents
Crown
carers
2021/22
$453 million
$157 million
$296 million
2020/21
$467 million
$186 million
$281 million
2019/20
$449 million
$172 million
$297 million
2018/19
$471 million
$181 million
$290 million
2017/18
$473 million
$186 million
$287 million
2016/17
$468 million
$189 million
$279 million
The “Retained by the Crown” column includes penalties. The “Distributed to carers” column
includes child support payments collected by Inland Revenue from parents in New Zealand
and paid to Services Australia on behalf of receiving carers in Australia.
Question 7a
Inland Revenue does  not hold information on  how child support payments are spent.
Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section  18(g)  of the OIA, as the
information requested is not held by Inland Revenue and I do not believe that the
information is held by or more closely connected with the functions of another agency.
Questions 8 and 12
The requested information, as it stands,  cannot  be made available without manual
substantial research. There are many thousands of documents that could be relevant to
your request. Therefore, these parts of your request are refused under section 18(f) of the
OIA, as the information cannot be made available without substantial collation.
However, the following information is publicly available and may be of assistance to you.
Cabinet paper:  Passing on child support payments to sole parent beneficiaries: Policy
decisions and pre-commitment funding  used  Inland Revenue  child support data  in the
policy-making process. The data was provided to MSD to allow it to estimate costings and
figures, such as how many families would be expected to benefit from passing on child
support.
You may wish to read submissions and advice received by Parliament at the link Child
Support (Pass On) Acts Amendment Bill (bills.parliament.nz) or on Parliament’s website
(parliament.nz).  The published documents include  the Social Services and Community
Committee’s report on the Bill, submissions and advice from submitters, Inland Revenue
and MSD.
You may also wish to read about the Child Support (Pass On) Acts Amendment Act 2023,
including the Regulatory impact statement – addendum and the Commentary on the Bill
on Inland Revenue’s tax policy website (taxpolicy.ird.govt.nz).
The following Cabinet papers and supporting documents are published on MSD’s website
(msd.govt.nz):
•
Amendments to the Approved Information Sharing Agreement between Inland
Revenue and MSD to facilitate child support pass-on;
•
Child Support (Pass On) Acts Amendment Bill – Approval for introduction; and
•
Passing on child support to sole parent beneficiaries – phased implementation

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Question 9
The number of complaints received about child support from 1 January 2018 to 6 July
2023 is 5,405.
The number of complaints includes calls that were escalated when customers have called
the contact centre, and  formal complaints managed by Inland Revenue’s Complaints
Management Service.
Complaints about child support can include many topics, such as child support liability,
child support deductions, child support payments not received, collection processes,
assessments, objections, applications for administrative  reviews  (a  departure  from the
formula assessment), changes in care circumstances, debt, and refunds offset to arrears.
The details of complaints received, investigated and resolved cannot be made available
without substantial manual collation and research. In addition, records of child support
complaints contain sensitive personal details  that  are considered sensitive revenue
information as they are reasonably capable of being used to indirectly identify taxpayers.
Sensitive revenue information can only be released in certain circumstances, as set out in
section 18D to 18J and schedule 7 of the Tax Administration Act 1994 (TAA). In this case,
there are no grounds that permit me to release this information to you.
Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section 18(c)(i) of the OIA as releasing
this information would be contrary to section 18 of the TAA, and under section 18(f) of the
OIA,  as  the information cannot be made available without substantial collation and
research.
Question 10
Inland Revenue deals with customers in good faith and provides as much information as
possible to assist people  on a case-by-case basis. The help it  gives  is based on the
information the customer provides and the issue being discussed.
This part of your request is therefore refused under section  18(g) of the OIA, as the
information is not held by Inland Revenue, and I do not believe that the information is
held by or more closely connected with the functions of another agency.
Question 10b
There has been a substantial downward trend on the number of phone calls received
regarding child support matters over the past 6 years. Changes to Inland Revenue’s child
support  system  were introduced in 2021 as part of Inland Revenue’s Business
Transformation. These changes have provided more efficient digital and other services for
customers which have had a positive effect on how often customers need to communicate
with Inland Revenue over the phone.
I am releasing, attached as Appendix A, the number of calls that customers made to
Inland Revenue’s  child  support phone numbers per month from October 2017 to June
2023.
The daily number of calls cannot be made available without substantial manual collation.
Therefore, this part of your request is  refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, as the
information cannot be made available without substantial collation.
Question 10c
Inland Revenue regularly suggests that customers contact MSD. This can be for a variety
of reasons. Inland Revenue is unable to determine  how many times it  has referred
customers to MSD, as it does not record customer contacts to the level of detail requested.
Therefore, this  part of your request is refused under  section  18(g)  of the OIA, as the
information requested is not held by Inland Revenue and I do not believe that the
information is held by or more closely connected with the functions of another agency.

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Question 11
All government departments are part of the Crown. Money is not transferred from Inland
Revenue’s bank account to MSD’s account.
Therefore, this part of your request is refused under section 18(g) of the OIA, as the
information requested is not held by Inland Revenue and I do not believe that the
information is held by or more closely connected with the functions of another agency.
Rights of review
If you disagree with my decision on your OIA request, you can ask an Inland Revenue
review officer to review my decision. To ask for an internal review, please email:
[email address].
Alternatively, under section 28(3) of the OIA, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman
to investigate and review my decision. You can contact the office of the Ombudsman at:
[email address]. If you choose to have an internal review, you can still
ask the Ombudsman for a review.
Publishing of OIA response
Please note that Inland Revenue regularly publishes responses to requests that may be of
interest to the wider public on its website. We consider that this response is of public
interest so will publish this response in due course. Your personal details, and  any
information that would identify you, will be removed before it is published.
Thank you for your request.

Yours sincerely

Sue Gillies
Customer Segment Leader, Families

Attachment: Appendix A

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Appendix A

Total number of calls received from 26 October 2017 to 23 June 2023

Month
Total calls
Month
Total calls
Month
Total calls

Jan-17
---
Jan-18
24,756
Jan-19
24,125

Feb-17
---
Feb-18
31,087
Feb-19
30,238

Mar-17
---
Mar-18
37,712
Mar-19
31,429

Apr-17
---
Apr-18
24,005
Apr-19
26,354

May-17
---
May-18
24,009
May-19
34,812

Jun-17
---
Jun-18
24,289
Jun-19
26,399

Jul-17
---
Jul-18
32,296
Jul-19
30,313

Aug-17
---
Aug-18
30,512
Aug-19
24,340

Sep-17
---
Sep-18
24,558
Sep-19
22,370

Oct-17
4,228
Oct-18
25,161
Oct-19
23,031

Nov-17
20,935
Nov-18
24,515
Nov-19
22,456

Dec-17
15,359
Dec-18
17,135
Dec-19
17,666

Total 2017
40,522
Total 2018
320,035
Total 2019
313,533

Month
Total calls
Month
Total calls
Month
Total calls

Jan-20
21,819
Jan-21
17,825
Jan-22
13,908

Feb-20
29,179
Feb-21
22,726
Feb-22
19,148

Mar-20
28,741
Mar-21
25,808
Mar-22
19,321

Apr-20
16,773
Apr-21
21,725
Apr-22
17,862

May-20
19,051
May-21
20,504
May-22
17,555

Jun-20
21,024
Jun-21
21,979
Jun-22
15,858

Jul-20
20,482
Jul-21
20,263
Jul-22
15,049

Aug-20
17,708
Aug-21
18,944
Aug-22
15,225

Sep-20
17,402
Sep-21
16,684
Sep-22
12,681

Oct-20
18,154
Oct-21
12,683
Oct-22
11,295

Nov-20
18,138
Nov-21
24,197
Nov-22
13,107

Dec-20
14,462
Dec-21
12,408
Dec-22
9,003

Total 2020
242,933
Total 2021
235,746
Total 2022
180,012





Month
Total calls



Jan-23
11,641




Feb-23
17,025




Mar-23
19,897




Apr-23
17,329




May-23
20,554




Jun-23
15,092




Total 2023
101,538




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