28 March 2025
Luke Higgins
By email: [FYI request #30258 email]
Tēnā koe Mr Higgins
Re:
Information request
Our ref:
E25HDC00246/SHO
Thank you for your email
of
28 February 2025 requesting the fol owing information:
‘(i) Please confirm that your office employs students to process the New Zealand
public's health and disability complaints to HDC.
(ii) Please confirm that a pool of the complaint resolution files to your office is
bundled as 'student files'.
(iii) Please provide the number of students employed by your office for the years
2020, 2021 2022, 2023 and 2024.
(iv) Please provide the number of complaints processed by the student employees
for the years 2020, 2021 2022, 2023 and 2024.
(v) Please provide the total number of complaints processed by HDC for the years
2020, 2021 2022, 2023 and 2024.
(vi) Please provide the salary and/or wages range paid to the student employees.’
We have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982. Please find
enclosed the information requested.
Question (i)
Complaints are initially processed by the Complaints Assessment Team. HDC employs
some people within the Complaints Assessment Team who are also tertiary students..
Of the Complaints Assessor Assistant team, two are also undertaking university study.
Question (ii)
Complaints considered suitable for early resolution are worked on by the Complaints
Assessor Assistants. The term ‘student files’ was a generic term formerly given to this
group of files. The term was inaccurate because many people employed as complaints
Auckland Office: P O Box 1791 Auckland 1140; Wel ington Office (new address): PO Box 245, Wel ington 6140
Freephone: 0800 11 22 33; Email: [email address]; Website: www.hdc.org.nz
2
assessment assistants were not undertaking study, and further there were other
employees at HDC who were undertaking study which were not part of the team.
‘Early resolution files’ is the accurate name for the previously called ‘student files’.
Question (iii)
HDC employs people to undertake specific roles at HDC which are set out in the
relevant job descriptions. Some people at HDC are also undertaking tertiary study.
Table 1 records the numbers of people employed within the Complaints Assessment
Team whom HDC was aware were also undertaking university study.
Table 1. Annual number of people employed in HDC’s Complaints Assessment team
who are also students.
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
5
8
14
10
5
Question (v)
Table 2. Annual complaints to HDC
YEAR
2019/20
2020/21
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24
TOTAL
ANNUAL 2,393
2,721
3,413
3,353
3,628
COMPLAINTS
OPENED
TOTAL
ANNUAL 2,226
2,404
2,627
3,048
3,148
COMPLAINTS
CLOSED
Question (vi)
As noted above, people who are also undertaking study are employed in numerous
roles at HDC. Therefore, we refuse this aspect of your request pursuant to:
Section 18(f) of the Official Information Act, as the information requested
cannot be made available without substantial col ation or research, We do not
consider that fixing a charge or extending the time limit under sections 15 and
15A of the Official Information Act would enable the request to be granted.
We note however that HDC does not pay any employee less than the living wage.
Refusal of request or aspect of request
3
In relation to question (iv), data is not categorised by the number of complaints
processed by the student employees for the years 2020, 2021 2022, 2023 and 2024.
Therefore, we refuse this aspect of your request pursuant to:
Section 18(f) of the Official Information Act, as the information requested
cannot be made available without substantial col ation or research. We do not
consider that fixing a charge or extending the time limit under sections 15 and
15A of the Official Information Act would enable the request to be granted.
You may seek a review of this decision from the Office of the Ombudsman.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Jane King
Associate Commissioner Legal
