Table One: Independent Review and DSS Taskforce costs - Budget allocated and expenditure to date (1 March 2024 to 30 June 2025)
Actual Expenditure
Budgeted Expenditure
for the period 1 March
for the period 1 March 2024 - 30 June
2024 - 30 June 2024
2024*
Independent Review of Disability Support Services
$
$
Internal Costs
-
-
External Costs***
124,173
-
Actual Expenditure
Budgeted Expenditure
Taskforce to implement recommendations from the
for the 8 months from 1 for the Financial Year from 1 July 2024
Independent Review of Disability Support Services
July 2024 to 28 Feb 2025 to 30 June 2025**
****
$
$
Internal Costs
1,918,588
not confirmed
External Costs***
480,301
not confirmed
*Costs related to the independent review of the sustainability of Disability Support Services (the Review) were paid by
Whaikaha, which was a Departmental Agency (DA) hosted by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). That
Departmental Agency has since been disestablished on 1 December 2024. As such, MSD is responding to your request as
part of its responsibilities of hosting the Departmental Agency from 1 July 2022 until 1 December 2024. It is MSD's
understanding that there was no specific budget limit agreed for the Independent Review of Disability Support Services.
Only costs up to 30 June 2024 have been provided, as no costs were incurred for the Independent Review after this
timeframe.
**The Review was approved by Cabinet in April 2024, to provide advice on what actions should be taken to manage
increasing cost pressures and ensure the future sustainability of the Disability Support Services (DSS).
The review identified seven recommendations that included taking immediate steps to stabilise DSS, including financial
monitoring and accountability mechanisms, and implementation of future settings to strengthen the system into one that
is transparent, fair, and consistent.
In late 2024, DSS delivery functions were moved into the Ministry of Social Development (MSD). Cabinet agreed to
reprioritise funding of $15.6M and to establish a cross-agency taskforce (the Taskforce) of senior officials within MSD to
deliver the review’s recommendations for DSS. Cabinet approved a total appropriation of $15.6 million in 2024/25 for the
Taskforce, that was funded through the reprioritisation of existing funding within Vote Social Development. Planned
expenditure is a portion of the total appropriation.
The allocation of the appropriation to internal and external costs is still underway and as such is not confirmed at this
time.
***External costs are primarily consultancy and contractor costs where the people undertaking that work are not
employees of the Ministry.
****The actual expenditure for the Taskforce is limited to the first 8 months of this financial year, as the financial year is
not yet complete.
Notes for interpreting Table One:
1. Only Departmental costs (expenditure for the operations (or review of operations) of the Ministry or Whaihaka DA)
have been included. This is because the work of the Independent Reviewers and the Taskforce are classified as
Departmental costs.
2. The requestor asks for 'consultancy/specialist consultancy' costs to be included in both the internal and external costs.
For the avoidance of doubt, we have classified the following costs as external costs:
a. Consultancy costs.
b. Contractor costs (as they are not employees of the Ministry).
c. The independent reviewers who undertook the review of disability support services (they were not employees of the
Ministry or Whaikaha DA)
