The Ministry of Social Development (MSD) is again in the spotlight for an administration error, this time over a reason for declining Special Needs Grant applications for help with food.
A 1 News investigation has found the ministry told more than 8000 people that food was not an essential need over six years.
The ministry has put that down to selecting the wrong category when processing the application.
MSD group general manager of client service delivery Graham Allpress said applicants being told food was not an essential need was an administrative error.
“Where the code was entered, it does not mean the underlying decision was incorrect, but selecting this category was an administrative error,” Allpress said.
The wrong decline code had affected 0.094 percent of applicants, with MSD processing more than 8.5 million applications over that six year time period.
The 1 News story also found the total number of declined applications had increased in the past two years.
Allpress told 1 News the ministry’s eligiblity criteria had not changed, and MSD continued to approve the vast majority (94 to 96 percent) of food grant applications.
“Before Covid-19, managers were required to approve some hardship grants. These requirements were temporarily waived during the Covid-19 response, but this was never intended to be permanent,” he said.
Documents 1 News received under the Official Information Act also showed 318,930 individuals asked for food grants in 2025 alone. On average, each person asked for help around four times, giving a total of 1.4 million applications.
Overall, 88,000 Special Needs Grant applications were declined.
Reasons for declining grants for food included “you do not have an immediate need” or “you have caused or contributed to your immediate need”.
Others were told their “circumstances could have been reasonably foreseen”, which was applied to more than 18,000 applications.
While most applications are approved, Labour said the increase in people needing support was a consequence of National making life more expensive.
“No one chooses to go hungry. Food is a basic necessity, and it is shameful that so many Kiwis are being left without enough of it,” said Labour’s social development spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime.
Social Development Minister Louise Upston said MSD continued to provide Special Needs Grants for food to hundreds of thousands of eligible New Zealanders.
“Through Budget 2026 we have enabled $45 million for community food support to assist those in highest need,” she said.
“For the first time ever, I have secured baselined funding to maintain existing community food distribution infrastructure at the current level, and an additional investment of $7 million for community food providers, such as foodbanks, in 2026/27.”
Upston said funding for Kick Start Breakfasts had additionally been secured, which currently provided breakfast to 46,000 children.
Upston and MSD have already apologised for two administrative errors, which saw people’s Winter Energy Payments and benefits wrongly suspended.
The review into that matter is due later this week.