Inland Revenue says 2772 people out of the 80,000 people it wrote to last month asking they repay Cost of Living Payments refunded the payment within two weeks of being asked.
A spokesperson for the department says it hadn't had any expectations about what the response to the letters would be, so couldn't say if it was disappointed.
Inland Revenue sent the letters on January 19 to people it believed had mistakenly received at least a portion of the $350 government hand-out last year.
It received 2772 repayments between then and February 4.
It emerged last year that a large number of people had received the payments despite not being entitled to them.
They included some people who had left the country before the subsidy came into effect, including migrants who had moved overseas and tourists who had previously been in New Zealand on working holidays, as well as some people who were not entitled to the payment because they were not in work.
It is understood that the vast majority of the 80,000 people would only have received the first tranche of the payment, worth $116.67, or two of the three tranches worth $233.33, rather than the whole sum.
Inland Revenue sent three different letters to people, depending on why it believed they had wrongly received the payment.
Some read more like a request and others more like a demand.
However, it reiterated at the time that it did not intend to take any enforcement action to force anyone to return the payments unless it had evidence that they had acted fraudulently to receive it, effectively making repayment voluntary.
In the vast majority of cases, the payments were sent out automatically without anyone having to make any claim or provide any information to IR.
That appears to have been a factor in persuading some people who wrongly received the payments to hang on to them.
One person in that situation justified their decision to Stuff last month by saying that they had not asked for the payment and were not now in a position to refund it, given that their mortgage interest payments had since jumped by $1300 a month.
National Party revenue spokesperson Andrew Bayly says the scheme had been a shambles.
In principle, Inland Revenue should do more to recover the wrong payments, 'but the question is the cost of recovery”, he says.
5 comments
Labour
Posted on 09-02-2023 07:42 | By Slim Shady
Just more money borrowed by Labour and frittered away.
give back
Posted on 09-02-2023 08:16 | By dumbkof2
this is the best laugh i have had all week
What a farce
Posted on 09-02-2023 08:39 | By an_alias
No business could be run like govt runs. Why were they paid in the first place? Why did people NOT EVEN in the country get paid ? What an absolute farce, oh we contacted them and 3% paid it back. We are so WOKE we couldn't even decide if that was good or not. We have now done all we can says govt and will ignore it from now on
All comments so far......
Posted on 09-02-2023 21:52 | By groutby
..pretty much spot on.....yet another 'at the stroke of the pen' simplistic policy going t*ts up for us the taxpayer at our expense....no 'what if' thoughts at all as we have have come to expect. At least it isn't the most expensive balls up.....so far.....
an_alias got it right; it's a farce.
Posted on 10-02-2023 11:56 | By morepork
They say the path to Hell is paved with good intentions. Labour probably thought they could help the underprivileged and get some Brownie points for coming elections at the same time. I find it incredible that the system was SO poorly designed and not thought through. Now, the 2772 people who did the right thing, will be made to look like idiots because the rest will not be pursued. If you're going to give money away, the least you can do is cross-reference to the Electoral Roll BEFORE you mail out. Maybe, people should have been required to claim in person...? It all shows the contempt and disrespect for other people's (Taxpayers) money, that has hallmarked this government.
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