List of registered suppliers (payment cards)
John Walter made this Official Information request to Ministry of Social Development
This request has an unknown status. We're waiting for John Walter to read recent responses and update the status.
From: John Walter
Dear Ministry of Social Development,
On the WINZ website, the food suppliers are listed but not all other retailers for using payment cards.
Please provide the full list of stores that payment cards can be used at.
Yours faithfully,
John Walter
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tēnā koe John Walter,
Thank you for your email received 7 October 2023, under the Official
Information Act 1982. Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate
officials at National Office to respond.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Official and Parliamentary Information Team | Ministerial and Executive
Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to help themselves to be safe, strong and
independent
Ko ta mātou he whakamana tangata kia tū haumaru, kia tū kaha, kia tū
motuhake
show quoted sections
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Kia ora John Walter
We refer to your below request made to the Ministry of Social Development
(the Ministry) under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
“Dear Ministry of Social Development,
On the WINZ website, the food suppliers are listed but not all other
retailers for using payment cards.
Please provide the full list of stores that payment cards can be used at.”
Your request is broad in scope and is likely to be refused under section
18(f) of the Act as substantial manual collation would be required to
provide the information requested.
As such, we suggest that you refine your request to enable us to provide
the information you are seeking. We recommend refining your request, for
example, by requesting the list of suppliers in your area.
Please note that once you have refined your request, under section 15(1AA)
of the Official Information Act, the Ministry will treat your refined
request as a new request that replaces the original request. This restarts
the 20-working day response period. This is required to ensure that the
Ministry has enough time to process your request.
If you do not refine your request, the Ministry will proceed with your
original request. Please note that this is likely to result in a partial
refusal of your original request.
Please confirm whether you agree with the refinement proposed.
Ngâ mihi
Official Information team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent.
Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whânau.
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
From: John Walter
Dear OIA_Requests (MSD),
Thank you for your preliminary indication.
I do not agree with your assessment of this request requiring substantial collation. That is because in my previous correspondence with Work and Income it is acknowledged that this information is stored in a searchable database, hence why staff are able to search supplier names. If that database is centralised for the entire country, which would seem the most logical set up, the suggestion that this request requires substantial collation is without basis.
However, if the database is regional, 16 ‘copy paste’ style functions are required to respond to this OIA request. Again, that would suggest this describing this as falling under the "substantial collation" exemption is unfounded.
Nevertheless, I also indicate the public interest in this information. By providing a public list of providers, as is already in place for food suppliers (https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/de...), WINZ employees are not required to expend resources locating an appropriate approved supplier. Given that WINZ is a public agency, public resources and public money will be saved by responding to this request.
I would also indicate that the public availability for payment card suppliers may have been intended because the website directs users to a 'payment card suppliers: contents' page under which 'food grant suppliers' is listed. No other categories are listed, but if this page was intended to be food suppliers alone, a contents page would not have been included.
It is unclear why this action has not been performed, but the common system is perverse to common sense where clients are required to either:
a. 'cold call' random suppliers and ask whether they are WINZ approved; or
b. ask WINZ to search a list via a phone call whether a suggested store is an approved supplier.
Accordingly, it is suggested that your preliminary assessment is incorrect, and, in the alternative, public interest would support proceeding with the request. If the preliminary assesment is upheld, I am exercising the OIA 1982, s 19(a)(ii) to give the grounds in support of the refusal.
Yours sincerely,
John Walter
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tçnâ koe John Walter
Please find attached the Ministry’s response to your Official Information
Act request.
Ngâ mihi
Official Information team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent.
Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whânau.
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
From: John Walter
Dear OIA_Requests (MSD),
In your previous response it was stated that there is an "extremely large number of suppliers in our systems and Ministry staff would have to manually review this information".
Please provide information on how that data is currently stored.
It is my understanding that this was already within a database of WINZ approved / registered suppliers because the call centre is able to search for names of suppliers.
Please confirm and, if affirmative, provide the entire raw database with any native categorisation that is already present in your system (I.e. without any "manual review" of the data to ascertain whether the supplier accepts payment cards or not). This should, therefore, negate all research required and the basis of the previous refusal.
Yours sincerely,
John Walter
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Tēnā koe John Walter,
Thank you for your email received 27 October 2023, under the Official Information Act 1982. Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate officials at National Office to respond.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Official and Parliamentary Information Team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to help themselves to be safe, strong and independent
Ko ta mātou he whakamana tangata kia tū haumaru, kia tū kaha, kia tū motuhake
show quoted sections
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Kia ora John Walter,
I am writing to you regarding your request for information below. This
letter is to advise you that the Ministry has received your request,
however requires more time to respond to this request. In accordance with
section 15(1) and 15A of the Official Information Act, the Ministry’s
decision will be with you no later than 8 December 2023.
Request:
“In your previous response it was stated that there is an "extremely large
number of suppliers in our systems and Ministry staff would have to
manually review this information".
Please provide information on how that data is currently stored.
It is my understanding that this was already within a database of WINZ
approved / registered suppliers because the call centre is able to search
for names of suppliers.
Please confirm and, if affirmative, provide the entire raw database with
any native categorisation that is already present in your system (I.e.
without any "manual review" of the data to ascertain whether the supplier
accepts payment cards or not). This should, therefore, negate all research
required and the basis of the previous refusal.”
The reason for the extension is that the request is for a large quantity
of information or necessitates a search through a large quantity of
information and meeting the original time limit would unreasonably
interfere with the operations of the Ministry.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of
this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
[1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this
decision, please feel free to contact [2][MSD request email]
I will respond to you sooner if I am able to.
Ngâ mihi
Official Information team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
Our Purpose:
We help New Zealanders to be safe, strong and independent.
Manaaki Tangata, Manaaki Whânau.
------------------------------- This email and any attachments may contain
information that is confidential and subject to legal privilege. If you
are not the intended recipient, any use, dissemination, distribution or
duplication of this email and attachments is prohibited. If you have
received this email in error please notify the author immediately and
erase all copies of the email and attachments. The Ministry of Social
Development accepts no responsibility for changes made to this message or
attachments after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
References
Visible links
1. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
2. mailto:[MSD request email]
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Offensive? Unsuitable?
Requests for personal information and vexatious requests are not considered valid requests for Official Information (read more).
If you believe this request is not suitable, you can report it for attention by the site administrators
Report this request
John Walter left an annotation ()
Ombudsman complaint filed.
Link to this