Winz hotel debt can be wiped, says Tolley
Social Development Minister Anne Tolley has confirmed the debt incurred by homeless Kiwis put up in hotels can be wiped.
Homeless families have racked up huge amounts of debt from being put up by Work and Income in hotels and motels as emergency accommodation which they have to pay back.
Work and Income currently had the sparing discretion to do this in ‘‘exceptional circumstances’’, Tolley said. It would apply ‘‘where there’s a genuine reason that they’ve suddenly found themselves in a crisis situation’’.
That criteria did not include situations where people were homeless due to not being able to pay their rent, or for making methamphetamine in their house.
The fact Housing NZ did not have enough houses was not a ‘‘genuine reason’’ to wipe the debt.
What about bankruptcy? The minister did not think so, but had to check.
‘‘There’s some quite specific criteria that the social workers use, [and] the case managers use.’’
Action Station members Kyle MacDonald and Marianne Elliot met with the minister to present more than 9200 signatures in favour of wiping the debt.
Tolley said they talked about the ‘‘difficulties’’ of getting rid of the debt.
MacDonald said it was a ‘‘good start’’ that the minister would look into considering the options.
The total debt beneficiaries owed to Work and Income was more than $417 million. The Ministry of Social Development could not define how much was from emergency accommodation.
Social housing deputy chief executive Carl Crafar said the debts were made up of several components – ‘‘and further detail can only be obtained by looking into individual files’’.
‘‘As part of the $41 million emergency housing announcement made last Monday, a new dedicated special needs grant that does not need to be paid back will allow us to track emergency housing need much more accurately.’’