Thousands of New Zealand pensioners and veterans have been affected by an error linked to an urgent law change passed through Parliament last year, which resulted in their Winter Energy Payments being stopped.
According to a report by Stuff, Social Development Minister Louise Upston and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon have apologised, while the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) is working to restore the payments and reimburse those affected.
Upston initially said she had been told last Thursday that between 4000 and 6000 people had missed payments. Those people were reimbursed by Saturday morning.
Officials later confirmed that the issue was much larger, with MSD service delivery manager Shannon Soughtton saying a review found “14,862 superannuitants and veterans had their Winter Energy Payments affected” between May 1 and August 7, Stuff has reported.
The Winter Energy Payment provides an additional $20.46 a week for a single person and $31.82 for a couple or family during the winter period from May 1 to October 1.
Upston described the situation as an “appalling” error and said steps would be taken to prevent a repeat.
“I’m frustrated this has happened, and I apologise to those who’ve been impacted,” she said, as quoted by Stuff.
Luxon initially referred to the problem as an “IT” issue. However, Upston said the error originated from a policy issue involving the processing of Winter Energy Payments, which was subsequently reflected in legislation, Stuff has reported.
Luxon also apologised for the mistake.
“What I’m interested in is making sure people get their money as quickly as possible, and then we’ll go out and work out what happened and make sure there’s IT fixes,” he said, as quoted by Stuff.
Labour’s social development spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime criticised the Government's decision to pass the legislation under urgency, saying the error had affected vulnerable people during winter.
“It’s appalling that many senior citizens have gone without their winter energy payment in the coldest months of this year. This is the result of the Government rushing through legislation under urgency. This is the human cost of those mistakes that they have made,” she said, Stuff has quoted.
The problem stemmed from the Social Security Amendment Bill, which was passed through all stages of Parliament under urgency and therefore did not undergo select committee scrutiny.
According to Stuff, the amendment, which became law in May 2025, introduced a requirement for beneficiaries to complete annual paperwork to apply for supplementary payments. When supplementary payments were suspended because the new requirement had not been met, Winter Energy Payments were also inadvertently stopped.
The Government had not intended for the Winter Energy Payment to be affected.
The payment was designed to automatically increase the incomes of main beneficiaries, including superannuitants, who generally do not need to make regular applications for the payment, as reported by Stuff.
MSD acknowledged that the error originated from its policy work and apologised to those affected.
“We apologise to everyone affected by this. We also briefed the minister on these issues last week and apologised to her. We’re disappointed this happened,” Soughtton said, Stuff has quoted.
“Now that we have fixed this issue, we’re writing to clients to explain what happened and what we’ve done about it, and to apologise,” she said, as quoted by Stuff.
Prime said the legislation should have followed the standard parliamentary process, including scrutiny by a select committee, where the problem could have been identified before the law came into effect.