Welfare boss in firing line over false names use
WELLINGTON: The chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development has been referred to the Solicitorgeneral after his agency repeatedly broke a statutory order not to use false names and signatures in legal documents.
The ministry has been using pseudonyms when dealing with some beneficiaries, an unlawful practice labelled ‘‘repugnant to the most fundamental concept of justice’’ in a stinging tribunal ruling released this week.
The ruling, from the littleknown Social Security Appeals Authority, revealed that despite warnings — and a 2016 undertaking from chief executive Brendan Boyle that the practice would cease — the use of false names during benefit review hearings had not stopped.
Mr Boyle was found to have filed a further seven documents containing fake names and signatures since he was told not to, the authority said, which it absolutely condemned.
‘‘It is difficult to imagine a more effective way of undermining public confidence in the independence of this authority, than for it to acquiesce to the chief executive’s conduct of these appeals,’’ the authority said.
‘‘Without notice, the chief executive’s delegates issued statutory decisions with false names and signatures.
‘‘Other delegates of the chief executive then presented them as genuine documents to the authority.
‘‘This activity occurred in breach of the chief executive’s personal undertaking to this authority that such behaviour would not occur.’’
The authority’s judgement arose in the case of a beneficiary who was arguing against seven decisions made by the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) not to give her particular benefits.
Those decisions were made by the ministry’s internal review body, named the Benefit Review Committee (BRC), which is comprised of a chairman and two ministry staff.
Unhappy with the BRC, the woman had appealed to the relevant tribunal, the Social Security Appeals Authority, last year.
During the course of the appeal to the authority, it was discovered the BRC had been using fake names and signatures on the official versions of their decisions, which it said was to protect the identities of committee members.
The ministry argued the woman was one of a small number of clients on its ‘‘remote client unit’’, considered to be a risk to staff.
The discovery was made because a ministry manager, George Van Ooyen, had emailed a memo ‘‘in confidence’’ to the authority arguing why the client was a risk, and why the names should be kept secret.
The woman at the centre of the case, Taranaki beneficiary Sonja Marie Lawson, said she will now seek compensation for distress caused, and breaches of natural justice.
She will be able to access the withheld names and will have time to find legal assistance before a new hearing.
Lawson, who does not work due to a debilitating autoimmune disorder, said she felt vindicated that finally she might get a fair chance.
‘‘Beneficiaries are at a disadvantage right from the beginning . . . and this [false names] makes it damn near impossible to explain issues or get a fair go,’’ she said.