54493 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Minister for Social Development and Employment

54493 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: What, if anything, is the process for reviewing the Ministry of Social Development's offers to historic abuse in care survivors' claims, including who undertakes the review?

Hon Louise Upston: The Ministry has interpreted this question as relating to settlement offers made as a result of individualised claim assessment. I am advised by the Ministry of Social Development (the Ministry), that for reviews of settlement offers made as a result of individualised claim assessments, claimants can request a claim review if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of their claim under an individualised assessment. Where the Settlement Offer is rejected by the claimant, next steps will be based on the claimant’s reasons for rejecting the offer and their individual circumstances. A review may include a: • review of an allegation to ensure the accuracy of the outcome based on the existing information; and/or • completing a detailed assessment of an allegation by considering all available information; and/or • payment review, to confirm that the claim outcome and payment category and range is consistent with similar claims. All reviews are carried out by a staff member who was not the initial assessor or peer reviewer. All reviews will be completed in accordance with the Historic Claims current assessment model outlined in section 7 of this document. All reviewed claims will require Consistency Panel endorsement, and where changes are made to their settlement offer, DCE approval will be sought.