Credit where credit is due, a MSD staff member phoned me this afternoon after being made aware of this post. He was not only competent, but most agreeable. Indeed, he was genuinely disappointed to hear of these problems, most of which have come about because of changes in the way parental income is scoped from 2012 - so politicians again :) So big ups for the phone call, I don't think my clients will be having problems into the future due to processes set in place.
_______________________________________________
It doesn’t matter where you stand politically on the matter of student loans and allowances, if we are going to have such a system, then it needs to work better than under the uber-bureaucracy operating it currently. That department is a working example of why you wouldn’t want a government running anything: labyrinthine - it’s easier doing the paperwork for a million dollar bank mortgage than a $14k student allowance - and as with the public sector, a culture that has no notion of the importance of privacy. The below is simply a letter with names taken out to be an open letter.
________________________________________________
StudyLink
To whom it may concern.
Re: [Student
Name]
Contents:
[List of documentation, verified, including taxation
summaries, relevant financial statements, et al, relating to student's parental income (parents being my clients).]
Notes:
Please note I’m at my wits end dealing with Studylink.
You have had all of the above information from me, particularly a statement of
income with full disclosure as to the nature of the Family Trust, beneficiary
income, trustee income, etc. More particularly, that statement of income had my
full contact details, and a specific request handwritten on and underlined to ring me if further information is required - as on particular clients I needlessly lose so much time on this process year after year - but despite this StudyLink continues dealing with the
student, sending form letters that all have to be relayed to me, and often
containing only partial information that is applicable, while relisting as
needed all the information that you already have. If you require anything further from this point, can you please ring me direct so any
further documentation matters can be dealt with quickly. (Moreover, when you
do send form letters to the student involved, please provide a direct dial
number to the officer working the application, or even an email address, so
that we humans on this side of the Berlin Wall of your telephone system - the
worst of any government department I’ve ever dealt with - are not driven to
utter distraction. In fact I will not use the StudyLink 0800 number: it is a
waste of my time.)
Concerns as
regards privacy:
It has long
concerned me that the way StudyLink operates constitutes a breach of parents’
privacy. Not all parents are comfortable with their children knowing the
complete details of their income – (I certainly wouldn’t be). There are,
indeed, some situations where children should not have this knowledge, nor
knowledge of family trusts that may have been set up specifically with regard
to errant behaviour on their behalf. The Kafkaesque routines of Studylink aside,
I guess parents, or myself, could try to supply details of their parental
income direct to StudyLink, although the way the loan/allowance application
process works this would seem outside the formal route, namely:
The statement of
parental income has to originally be stapled to the student's allowance application,
the rest of which the student completes. Thus the parental income figure, and
breakdown of this income, always ends up given to the child/young adult to be
sent with their application, meaning in every case the child learns these
details.
Secondly, as
stated, when StudyLink want further information regarding parental income, or
information verification, then it never corresponds with me or the parents, but
the student.
This is not only a
privacy breach of confidential information between parents and their children,
but when details are needed from parents who are separated, then this quickly
devolves to a very difficult situation, as the parent whom the child is living
with can use it to find out their ex’s income. That is a charged situation which
can lead to pressures and stresses which are unhelpful, to say the least.
Although I am the
last person, normally, to promote departmental information sharing, because no
taxpayer has privacy before the state, anyway, the simple solution to all the issues above
would appear to be that StudyLink, as ACC do, get a tape of all applicable
parental income direct from IRD.
In frustration,
yours faithfully …
No comments:
Post a Comment