42678 (2025). Ricardo Menéndez March to the Minister for Social Development and Employment

42678 (2025). Ricardo Menéndez March to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: How many Advance Payments of Benefits have been declined in the past 5 years, broken down by purpose of the Advance Payment, quarter, gender, ethnicity, reason for the decline and Work and Income office?

Hon Louise Upston: • Table One: Number of benefit Advance (grants + declines) processed from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 by quarter ending, gender and application outcome. • Table Two: Number of benefit Advance (grants + declines) processed from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 by quarter ending, total response ethnicity and application outcome. • Table Three: Number of benefit Advance (grants + declines) processed from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 by quarter ending and region. • Table Four: Number of benefit Advance declines from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 by quarter ending and decline reason. • Table Five: Number of benefit Advance declines processed from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 by quarter ending and assistance reason. • Table Six: Number of benefit Advance (grants + declines) processed from 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2025 by quarter ending and Work and Income site. The Ministry has advised me they are unable to provide the number of individual people who have received an Advance payment, broken down by Work and Income office or region. This is because individual clients may apply for an Advance payment in different offices or regions, resulting in a single client potentially being counted multiple times within a quarter.