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Officials keep quiet after botched Lake Alice compensation
- MSD doesn’t say if it’s checking Lake Alice torture survivors’ benefit decisions after compensation botch up
- The agency wrongly denied accommodation supplement to a Lake Alice survivor, but the decision was overturned
- Former human rights commissioner criticises MSD’s stance.
Officials are not saying if they’ve checked to make sure survivors of torture at the notorious Lake Alice child and adolescent unit haven’t wrongly had benefits cut because of compensation they’ve received.
RNZ reported last month that Paul Zentveld, who has a King’s Service Medal for services to survivors of abuse in care, was unable to pay his rent and was living in his house bus in a public car park after his accommodation supplement was cancelled when it shouldn’t have been.
Zentveld is one of more than 100 Lake Alice survivors who opted for a $150,000 compensation payment for torture suffered during the 1970s at the unit, overseen by Dr Selwyn Leeks. Others have negotiated settlements through arbitration.
Ministry of Social Development rules say compensation for Lake Alice survivors or assets they’ve bought with compensation money should not be considered when they’re assessed for benefit entitlements.
Yet a boat worth about $23,000 Zentveld bought with his money was wrongly ruled to mean he was ineligible for receiving accommodation supplement payments, a decision reversed when he successfully appealed to the MSD’s benefits review committee.
MSD doesn’t say if it has reviewed other decisions
Zentveld is concerned other Lake Alice survivors in his situation would also be affected.
RNZ has spoken with another survivor who was also denied their accommodation supplement due to an asset they’d bought using their compensation money, only for the decision to be reversed after Zentveld’s story was reported.
MSD’s group manager for client service delivery Graham Allpress said he couldn’t comment on individual cases without a privacy waiver, but said it regularly reviewed decisions.
“If we get something wrong, we want to make it right as quickly as possible.
“Many of our staff have been working with survivors of abuse for a long time. They work hard to provide people with the support they’re entitled to.”
RNZ asked if MSD would check with all Lake Alice survivors who had received compensation to make sure their benefit entitlements weren’t wrongly affected.
Allpress said MSD had “specific operational guidance which applies to Lake Alice survivors and their compensation payments”.
