Thousands of New Zealanders have given their support to a nationwide campaign calling on the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) to take repayment action over billions of dollars of overpaid Covid-19 wage subsidies.

Nearly 10,000 people have signed a petition launched by Christchurch philanthropists Grant and Marilyn Nelson, with 9,883 signatures recorded by 11am today (Friday 30 June 2023) and numbers still climbing. Latest numbers and messages of support from thousands of New Zealanders can be found at www.change.org/IntegrityInstitute.

Grant Nelson says the response to the campaign has been overwhelming and sends a clear signal to the Ministry that New Zealanders expect businesses to be contacted and told that those who were overpaid must pay the money back.

“We know that around $780 million has been voluntarily repaid and we acknowledge the Ministry’s efforts to bring around 36 cases to the courts over the past three years, however this is just a drop in the ocean when compared to the prosecution of up to 453 beneficiaries in a single year.”

The $10 billion figure we calculate has been wrongly retained is a conservative estimation of the amount overpaid and wrongly retained. Grant takes you through how it was calculated at $10,000,000,000 overpaid to businesses – The Integrity Institute.

“All we are asking is that the Ministry contact businesses who received the subsidy and ask them to confirm they were entitled to it or pay it back. We don’t think that’s too much to ask, and thousands of New Zealanders agree with us.

“Marilyn and I would like to personally thank everyone who has supported our call for action and signed the petition. We feel strongly that the right thing must be done, which is why we have funded a national public awareness campaign to call attention to the issue.

“It is frankly staggering that we’ve had to take this action to get the Ministry to take a simple step of writing to businesses and asking them to do what’s right.”

You can follow Grant and Marilyn’s journey to investigate the wage subsidy repayments, find out more and sign the petition at www.theintegrityinstitute.org.nz

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