Process for consideration of special circumstances for student allowances
Chris Miller made this Official Information request to Ministry of Social Development
The request was successful.
From: Chris Miller
Dear Ministry of Social Development,
I would like to see any documentation or guidelines you have on the process for considering "special circumstances" that would exempt a student from the 200 week limit on student allowances in the new policy starting in 2013. This should include, if possible, who is responsible for making such decisions, eg whether there is a set person or persons, and how much weight is given to medical documentation when the reason for application is due to disability that qualifies a student for limited full-time status and thus increases the length of time a qualification takes to obtain.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Miller
From: OIA_Requests (MSD)
Ministry of Social Development
Dear Chris Miller,
Thank you for your email received 14 June 2012, under the Official Information Act 1982. Your request has been forwarded to the appropriate officials at National office to respond. You may expect a response to be sent to you as soon as possible.
Regards
Official and Parliamentary Information team | Ministerial and Executive Services
Ministry of Social Development
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Miller [mailto:[OIA #360 email]]
Sent: Thursday, 14 June 2012 2:32 p.m.
To: Info (MSD)
Subject: Official Information Act request - Process for consideration of special circumstances for student allowances
Dear Ministry of Social Development,
I would like to see any documentation or guidelines you have on the process for considering "special circumstances" that would exempt a student from the 200 week limit on student allowances in the new policy starting in 2013. This should include, if possible, who is responsible for making such decisions, eg whether there is a set person or persons, and how much weight is given to medical documentation when the reason for application is due to disability that qualifies a student for limited full-time status and thus increases the length of time a qualification takes to obtain.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Miller
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Please use this email address for all replies to this request: [OIA #360 email]
Is [MSD request email] the wrong address for Official Information Act requests to Ministry of Social Development? If so, please contact us using this form: http://fyi.org.nz/help/contact
Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies: http://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
If you find this service useful as an OIA officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's FOI page.
-------------------------------
This email message and any attachment(s) is intended only for the
person(s) or entity(entities) to whom it is addressed. The
information it contains may be classified as IN CONFIDENCE and may be
legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient any use,
disclosure or copying of the message or attachment(s) is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this message in error please
notify us immediately and destroy it and any attachment(s).
Thank you. The Ministry of Social Development accepts no
responsibility for changes made to this message or to any
attachment(s) after transmission from the Ministry.
-------------------------------
-------------------------------
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.
-------------------------------
hide quoted sections
From: Tanya Howlett
Ministry of Social Development
Dear Chris
Please find attached the Ministry's response to your Official Information
Act request concerning consideration of special circumstances for
exemptions from the 200 week limit on student allowances.
Kind regards
Tanya Howlett
Tanya Howlett
Manager, Official and Parliamentary Information
Ministry of Social Development
Ph: 916 3638 Internal extn: 42638
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please consider the environment before printing this email and its
attachments.
Avoid printing, or print double-sided if you can.
------------------------------- 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.
-------------------------------
hide quoted sections
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
Brendon Steen left an annotation ()
Was just reading the response to you "Numbers of students qualifying for limited full-time status due to disability" request and noticed this as well.
It seems the power to grant an exemption that they're referring to is the one in reg 20(7) of the Student Allowance Regulations 1998, which seems to give the power to the chief executive of MSD.
Will be interesting to see if they come back with any guidelines, etc for how those decisions are made. Could also be interesting to follow-up with a question about how many exemptions have been made using that power.
The regulations are here: http://legislation.govt.nz/regulation/pu...
Link to this