28 February 2006

Child Disability Allowance payment failure

The Ministry of Social Development today apologised to families affected by a computer problem that has delayed the payment of Child Disability Allowances for up to a day.

“While we are doing all we can to get the allowances paid into peoples’ bank accounts today, the error means that thousands of families have been hugely inconvenienced by this problem. This is unacceptable and I apologise to them for this mistake,” said Christine Stevenson, Ministry of Social Development Deputy Chief Executive, People, Capability and Resources.

All 30,379 Child Disability Allowance payments totalling $2.6 million failed to be processed correctly last night. Many of these clients will have received the payment this afternoon. Other will be able to access it by 6am tomorrow.

“We have identified that the processing error occurred with EDS and we will be working with them to ensure it doesn’t happen again. Once again I apologise to those families affected by the error,” said Christine Stevenson.

ENDS

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