A pensioner stranded overseas for months due to Covid-19 border restrictions has won a drawn out battle with the Ministry of Social Development over her superannuation payments.
Rosalie Dobson had her pension cut off in 2021 and was ordered to pay back a large amount after she got stuck in Indonesia.
She had travelled in June last year at short notice to sort out her business after her relationship ended.
But Dobson could not get back, trying for more than six months to get a spot in managed isolation before eventually arriving back in Aotearoa in March 2022.
After 26 weeks overseas pension payments are frozen, and at 30 weeks away a recipient can be forced to pay back the previous six months of superannuation.
That is what happened to Dobson. She has been battling with MSD since reaching her third and final appeal.
Rosalie Dobson who was stranded in Indonesia and then Australia leading to the cancellation of her pension. Photo: Supplied
She told Checkpoint that while she was grateful to receive government super payments, her experience left her feeling "incredibly frustrated and actually angry and more so angry by the reactions of fellow citizens of New Zealand".
"The whole thing was awful, terrifying. It was frustrating... I was upset, I thought, how am I going to pay the $10,860 or whatever it is, back."
Family members also blocked her on Facebook suggesting she was "an enemy of the state" who was opposing government policy.
"I'm a really strong Labour supporter, but I think this was really badly managed and I think it's okay to say that because if the pandemic of any kind happens again, I would hope that they've got better things in place so that Kiwis can get home ... there's got to be a better way."
Dobson had to travel to Lombok in Indonesia because her former partner with whom she had a business had sold the company car as well as her furniture and other possessions.
She let MSD know she would be away for about two months and stayed in touch with her case worker when it became obvious it would be much longer due to the border being closed.
More than 7000 pensioners had their superannuation frozen because they left the country between April 2020 and February 2022 - though MSD could not say if all of them were stranded due to Covid-19 restrictions.
MSD said it has had 494 applications for a review of their decisions - 170 are yet to be decided.
Rosalie Dobson lost her first appeal with MSD ruling that she had been away for 30 weeks so repayment was required.
She said while it was cheap living in Indonesia she found the long-term prospect of no income terrifying with the experience made worse by people telling her she shouldn't have left New Zealand.
It was "insane", she said, that people like the Wiggles could get into New Zealand to do a show and leave again, and people like her who were stranded were unable to get back unless they were lucky enough to get a ticket in the lottery system.
She believed she had been treated "appallingly badly".
"I think that there should have been some humane way to figure out clearly that people have been trying to get home, that they weren't trying to stay away and have a holiday."
For eight months she tried to get a place in MIQ and finally managed to get home in March via Queensland where she travelled as soon as Australia opened its borders.
After her third appeal she was informed last week she had been successful and would not have to repay any money.
'A cruel and unusual period'
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson said the cutting off of super had been a major issue for people who travelled overseas usually because they wanted to help family during the pandemic.
They went on the understanding that they would gain a place in managed isolation or any closure of the border, especially for Australia, would be a short one, she said.
She said the problems they faced trying to get home were not foreseeable as maintained by MSD.
"It became very obvious very quickly that the difficulties encountered were absolutely not foreseeable.
"The borders had not been closed in my lifetime. They were last closed I think in wartime so this was a cruel and unusual period in our history. Everybody was trying to do their best but this one I think just fell through the policy cracks..."
MSD was proactively reviewing the cases of those who had their super cut off but it was surprising how cases could not be counted on a database, Wrightson said.
"It's been painfully slow."
Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson Photo: supplied
MSD has refused to make a blanket ruling and instead has decided to approach all complaints on a case-by-case basis.
Wrightson's advice was for people not to repay any demands for money and to ask for a review.
But the Retirement Commissioner said the fact so many appeals have still been rejected showed there were systemic issues with the review process and she intended to have a look at the issue next year.
"It [the review system] does seem time consuming and cumbersome."
Wrightson said the system was designed at a time when people of pension age did not travel but many were global citizens now and it would be timely for the rules on payments to be reviewed.
