$18M overpaid by Social Welfare every year

Press, 10 November 1981, Page 6

$18M overpaid by Social Welfare every year

Random checks of Social Welfare payments showed that about $lB million a year might be lost through overpayments to beneficiaries, said the Minister of Social Welfare (Mr Gair), in Christchurch yesterday. “To me. 'the important message from this result is not the sum of $lB million, but that it represents only 0.7 per cent of total benefit expenditure," he said. “How many other organisations can say that their operations are 99" per cent without error?”

Mr Gair was in Christchurch to open a new Social Welfare office at Hornby. Decentralisation of the department’s work was important so that services were freely accessible to the public, he said. After the opening, the director of the Social Welfare Department in

Christchurch (Mr C. L. Waters) said the Hornby office was the first of several area offices which would be set up in Christchurch. The department was considering opening offices in Papanui. and New Brighton, and at Kaiapoi. The Hornby office would provide a complete Social Welfare service. It had a staff of seven including three social workers, which had been taken from the Christchurch office. The office had cost about $BO,OOO to set up, but administration costs would be low. Mr Waters said the Labour Department also planned to set up an office at Hornby, which would complete the services offered. While the new Social Welfare office was officially opened yesterday, it would not be open to the public until 9 am. on Monday, November 16.