Relief after pension cut reversed
Round of a-paws
WMelissa Nightingale
hen Paeroa man Jack Pere started receiving his pension, he didn’t expect his payments to be reduced to almost nothing because his stepchildren were receiving survivors benefits after their father died.
Pere was told he owed about $13,000 in back payments after the Ministry of Social Development decided to deduct the amount of the survivors benefits from his New Zealand pension.
The decision was reversed last week, but Pere’s family have been upset and disgusted.
“Things need to change,” said Narissa Hawaikirangi-Pere, who went through a couple of tight months as her husband’s pension was reduced to $17 per fortnight.
Hawaikirangi-Pere had two children with her first husband, an American citizen. After his death, the US government started paying her about $1200 per month, for the children’s needs.
She later remarried Pere, who applied for and started receiving the New Zealand pension. It wasn’t until Pere went to the ministry to inquire about a disability allowance that he was told he should have been getting deductions from his pension because of the children’s survivors benefits, and he would have to pay back up to $13,000.
Spousal deduction is a policy in the Social Security Act by which deduc- tions may be made from someone’s New Zealand pension if their spouse is receiving a higher governmentadministered pension from overseas.
The policy has been the subject of a Human Rights Review Tribunal hearing in Wellington over the past couple of weeks, with pensioners claiming the practice breaches their human rights.
Hawaikirangi-Pere must regularly sign an attestation saying the benefit money is being used on the children, but said the ministry was essentially making her commit fraud in doing so.
The couple asked for a review of the matter, and partway through the tribunal hearing last week, they received a call from the ministry telling them the decision was reversed.
“I just burst into tears, I couldn’t believe it,” Hawaikirangi-Pere said. “We can breathe now.’’ She believed spousal deduction in general was “disgusting”.
“The pensioners, they don’t need this added stress at their time of life.”
Kay Read, group general manager of client service delivery at MSD, said the policy meant overseas pensions were deducted from NZ Super on a dollar by dollar basis.
“The law recognises fairness in the way all New Zealanders are treated, as people with overseas pensions get the same amount as other New Zealanders,” Read said in a statement.
“Cases involving overseas survivors benefit for children are extremely rare. We take a case-by-case approach.” When Kurt Stephenson was leaving high school in 2008 he was offered a university scholarship to study viticulture.
But he turned it down, knowing he wanted to take the long road toward becoming a police dog handler.
Yesterday that dream became a reality, with Stephenson and his dog, Mint, becoming one of 10 dog and handler teams graduating from the New Zealand Police Dog Training Centre in Trentham.
Five teams will work for New Zealand Police, and five for Aviation Security Service.
Stephenson said even though it had taken a decade to become a dog handler, he had never regretted the decision.
“You [wonder] what life would have been like. Then you reflect on what you’ve been through [and] you think, ‘I wouldn’t change it’.”
National co-ordinator police dogs Inspector Todd Southall said the latest graduates had been part of a plan to change the dog training system, and had all handled it well.
“We want our dogs to be quieter, instead of barking the whole time.
“Particularly when we’re finding offenders [if the dog is quieter the handlers] can communicate well with the offender”.
Avsec group manager operations Karen Urwin said the dogs were one of their greatest weapons.
“There are some pretty good bomb-makers out there, and they’re pretty good at finding ways to defeat clever machinery.
“But it’s pretty hard to beat a dog’s nose.”