Final 'Cost of Living Payment' made to 1,351,000 people on Monday

Monday, 3 October 2022

Cost of Living Payments were criticised by the Treasury, which argued they were not well targeted at those in need.

The third and final tranche of the Government’s $350 ‘Cost of Living Payment’ was paid to most people who are expected to receive it on Monday.

Just under $488 million has been paid out so far.

But hundreds of thousands of people who the Government believed would be entitled to the Budget hand-outs have yet to receive them, in most cases because their tax assessments have not yet been finalised.

Inland Revenue said the final $116.66 instalment was paid to 1,351,000 people on Monday.

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That number was down on the 1,446,000 people who received the first payment on August 1 before tighter eligibility checks were ordered, and is a slight drop on the 1,389,000 people who received the second payment on September 1.

It emerged in August that an unknown number of people who had recently moved overseas had received payments, including some tourists who were previously here on working holidays.

However, there are other reasons why people might be entitled to one of the payments but not another, for example if they had died or moved on or off benefits or in or out of the country during the payment period.

An IR spokesperson indicated the tax department still assumed more than 2 million people would ultimately be judged to have qualified for the payments.

“We do expect the numbers to increase towards 2.1 million over time, as things like the 2022 income tax assessments are finalised,” she said.

“We won’t know the true numbers until the returns are filed and income is known.”

About 75,000 people who IR knows qualify for the payments have not yet received them because they have not provided a bank account to IR to enable it to send them the money.

IR said 6797 people had “opted out” of receiving at least one of the payments, and 996 people had decided to repay them.

Conditions for qualifying for the payment include having an income of $70,000 before tax and not receiving a benefit including the Winter Energy Payment.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated the value of the final cost of living payment was $166.66, rather than $116.66. (Amended 5.08pm, September 3, 2022.)