SECTION THREE: SUBMISSIONS AND MEETINGS
- Submissions from Government Departments and Crown Entities
- Staff Focus Groups
- Staff Submissions
- Stakeholder Groups
- Beneficiary Advocacy Groups
- Public Submissions
F. PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
16.1 The Minister of State Services invited members of the public to make their views known. Written responses were received from 153 groups or individuals. There were also separate petitions presented to the Minister of State Services from students after a protest march through Wellington, (This contained 101 signatures) and a second petition from a political party (with 333 signatures) sent directly to the review team.
Staff attitude, knowledge and availability
16.2 The majority of submissions felt that staff were unavailable when needed for emergency appointments or phone access. Many of the submissions felt this was a result of high caseloads. Over half of the submissions commented on staff having a bad attitude towards them, i.e. "staff attitudes threaten and intimidate beneficiaries". On the other hand a number of submissions were complimentary about individual staff members. Submissions also commented on the fact that;
- often decisions and advice about entitlement were inconsistent and incorrect;
- the need for staff to receive more training in legislation and policy;
- that a level of specialisation might assist.
Communication problems
16.3 The 0800 service was perceived as not working by beneficiaries who responded. In almost all the submissions no one had been able to get through to a call centre on the first attempt. In fact many of the submissions stated that they had stayed on the phone for periods of between 30 minutes and one hour only to be cut off. There was also a number who commented that it took days for their case manager to get back to them, after leaving a message with the call centre staff. The general demand was for this service to be urgently reviewed.
Beneficiary autonomy
16.4 Submissions from beneficiaries felt that what autonomy they had has been completely taken away by the removal of job boards and computers on which to complete their CVs. There was a unanimous request from all that raised this, to have these tools reinstated.
Environmental aspects of the office
16.5 There were a large number of submissions that asked the Department of Work and Income to provide areas where beneficiaries and staff could discuss information in a more private environment. Every one who spoke to this subject disliked having to discuss personal details within hearing of the person next to them.
Payment issues
16.6 All submissions that discussed student allowances and loans asked for this system to be reviewed. The issues with student loans include the staff issues and communication problems noted above as well as the delays in processing applications, causing hardship for applicants.
16.7 The new child care subsidy procedures (introduced in Feb 99) were also an issue for a number of submissions all of which requested this system to be reviewed and replaced with a more effective one.
Community Employment Grant Administration
16.8 There were a number of issues, mainly from training organisations that called for changes in the community employment area. The main criticisms were that the application process was not timely, the staff were very hard to contact and the system itself was inflexible and that there needed to be more delegation at the local level. There was a strong call for all these issues to be addressed as soon as possible.
