168,000 people risk Cost of Living Payment delay due to missing bank details

Wednesday, 20 July 2022

People in Auckland react to the announcement of a $350 cost of living payment for people earning under $70k. (Video first published May 19.)

Inland Revenue says that as of Monday it still didn’t have bank accounts details for 168,000 of the low- to-middle-income earners who will be entitled to Cost of Living Payments.

That was just two weeks out from the first installment being payable to people on August 1.

The Government announced in the Budget that adult residents who earnt less than $70,000 last year and who were not entitled to receive the Winter Energy Payment would be entitled to the $350 one-off payment, which is designed to help people cope with high inflation.

It will be split into three installments, with the first payable on August 1 and the others paid on September 1 and October 3.

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Inland Revenue is administering the scheme and in most cases already has details of the bank accounts it will need to make the payments, because people have previously supplied them to receive tax rebates.

The tax department has taken on 300 temporary staff to handle queries from the public and an IR spokesperson said it had gathered the bank account details of 40,000 customers that it previously didn’t have since May 25.

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Acting chief executive Cath Atkins told a select committee in June that it thought then it was missing 170,000 bank accounts to make the payments.

Explaining why that figure had barely moved, IR’s spokesperson said that had only been an estimate.

“As we get information which indicates a customer’s eligibility, the number of bank accounts we’re looking for will continue to fluctuate,” she said.

People who don’t supply their bank account details to IR before August 1 won’t necessarily miss out on the Budget hand-outs, as they will be able to claim them up until March next year.

The Treasury advised Finance Minister Grant Robertson on May 4 that Inland Revenue had estimated 2,136,000 people were likely to be eligible for the payments.

IR’s spokesperson said that estimate had not changed and it was “still working to the 2.1 million figure”.

The Cost of Living Payments have been expected to cost the Government about $747 million, plus another $16m in administrative costs.

The Treasury opposed the payments on the basis that they would be inflationary and poorly targeted at those in need.

IR’s spokesperson said it was taking a number of steps to get the bank accounts it still needed to make the payments, which included a targeted email campaign, taking out radio adverts and posting messages on social media.

But she said IR had decided against an outbound calling campaign, so if anyone received a telephone call purporting to be from IR about the Cost of Living Payments, they should treat that as a scam and not provide any details to the caller.

The secure ways for people to provide their bank account details to IR were by updating their details in its myIR website or by calling IR on 0800 257 777, she said.