Annual report - 2004 - Part 3

Tailored services meeting needs from the 2004 Annual Report - 2

Addressing the needs of Maori customers

During 2003-04 we undertook a number of activities to develop our ability to address the needs of Maori customers, including the:

• implementation of the Maori authorities legislation, which was supported by the delivery of training seminars for Maori authorities around the country. An assessment of these seminars showed that those people attending found them useful.
• introduction of our Maori Language Plan (Tuia ki te reo), reflecting the Government's Maori Language Strategy Te Rautaki Reo Maori. Implementing the initiatives in Tuia ki te reo will help us to develop our long-term capability to design and deliver appropriate services that meet the needs of the Maori community. During the year, we celebrated Maori Language Week, as a way of getting our staff to have a go at speaking te Reo Maori and understanding Maori culture. This is a practical contribution to the development of our capability to deliver services to our Maori customers.
• development of an integrated strategy for addressing Maori tax and social support programme delivery needs. This will incorporate improved service delivery mechanisms and developing of our internal capability (such as the development of our capacity to provide services in te Reo Maori, as necessary). The development of this strategy will continue into the 2004-05 year.

Cross-government initiatives

As a government agency, we need to work closely with other government departments on community initiatives. The most signficant example of this is our work with the Ministry of Social Development on Working for Families - see more on this topic under Implementing key government initiatives. Other examples include:

• Heartlands agencies with a variety of other government departments
• working with other agencies to help alleviate tax difficulties arising from flooding
• cross-government strategies such as the New Zealand Disability Strategy, Positive Ageing and the Statement of Government Intentions for an Improved Community-Government Relationship.

Inland Revenue plays an active role in delivering services at Heartlands agencies, with 6,832 taxpayers and other customers being responded to during these agencies in 2003-04. We see our attendance at these agencies as an important part of our relationship building with those rural communities. They also ensure that people who live in their communities can access our tax and social support programme information. Attendance at Heartlands centres is also a part of our response to building strong relationships with the community, including tangata whenua organisations.

Working with affected communities during the February 2004 floods The team from Palmerston North Office who worked with central North Island flood victims Back row, standing, left to right: Keith Jacob, Rhys Mohi, Wayne McNae, Vicki Cronin, Christine Jourdain, Pauline Brungar. Front row, seated, left to right: Sue Jex, Charmaine Ratima, Lynette Fischer, Hine Manuel, Paula Bedford, Philippa McNae, Dorothy Sushames, Lynne Hutchins Inland Revenue staff showed outstanding commitment and dedication during the peak of the floods in the central North Island. Wellington Service Centre Manager, Mike Hewetson, coordinated Inland Revenue's flood relief response and he applauds the efforts of staff during the emergency. "Our staff actively reached out to the local community to help where possible." A leaflet urging affected people to contact us as soon as possible was developed in less than 24 hours for distribution to taxpayers and other customers in the affected areas. The Ministry of Social Development set up a government phone line and one-stop-shops in the flooded regions with information on government services. "We actively supported these initiatives, supplying staff with advice on obligations and entitlements. Staff immediately joined others to support the local one-stop-shops, providing a service no matter where and when it was needed." Our Policy Advice Division advised government on disaster relief legislation which was introduced and enacted under urgency in March. This gave Inland Revenue greater flexibility in dealing with business taxpayers who were badly affected by the floods. Positive feedback was received about this advice and the work of our people in the field. Federated Farmers' President, Tom Lambie stated "Federated Farmers appreciates the tax department's significant support for farmers adversely affected by the storm and its aftermath. We cannot speak highly enough of the department's effort in trying to reach out to individual taxpayers." Federated Farmers went on to say that an example of Inland Revenue's good work is the speed it responded to the storm. It set up a dedicated team and took a pragmatic approach to dealing with difficulties faced by individual farmers, such as those who lost all financial records. The lessons we learnt during the February floods are now being used as the basis for our work in supporting people affected by the Eastern Bay of Plenty floods in July 2004.

Student loan borrowers

This year we have been focusing on improving the range of options available to student loan borrowers through our websites (see section on e-Government services) and offering credit card payments. The latter were introduced in May 2004, primarily to make it easier for borrowers who are overseas to make payments against their loans. This is an important initiative as the percentage of non-resident borrowers is slowly increasing from 4.9% in 2001 to 6% of total borrowers at June 2004. However, they are responsible for 58% of the value of overdue repayments.

Between late May and 30 June, nearly 300 payments, with a total value of over $272,000 had been made using credit cards. Over 70% of these payments were from overseas credit cards. We expect the uptake of the service to increase over the coming months to 1,800 borrowers a month.

We have also continued to deliver advisory information to groups of students at seminars and similar events.

Child support

We have two pilot schemes under way to make it easier to meet child support obligations and for custodial parents to know when payments have been made. We are trialling text messaging payment reminders to paying parents. We plan to extend the trial to custodial parents to notify them that the payment has been made. Each pilot programme will run for three months and the findings from these will be incorporated into the service.

Child Support Community Liaison Officer Mihaka Panapa on the air with Radio Waatea host Dale Husband Child Support was recently invited by Ngaa Ture Kaitiaki ki Waikato Community Law Centre to appear on their regular Radio Waatea segment over a period of six months to present information on a variety of child support topics. Community Liaison Officer, Mihaka Panapa, joins radio host Dale Husband on Wednesdays between 9.30 and 10.30 am, once a month, covering general information for paying parents, custodians, and anyone with an interest in child support. The law centre, based in Manukau, runs an outreach service that is partly provided on community radio, where it aims to give relevant law-related information to listeners. Radio Waatea is a community station with Auckland-wide coverage, for a mostly Maori audience, but which also reaches the wider community. It has been an excellent opportunity for Child Support to raise community awareness about child support, as well as interact with specific community groups through their own existing, well-supported forums. "It's been a great experience - an excellent way for us to talk directly to our community and raise awareness of some very practical aspects of child support," Mihaka explains. "People will hear helpful information for themselves, and for family and friends. It has helped increase our visibility in the community and given clear, specific information to listeners."

Understanding our customers

Over the year we have been improving our analytical capability so we will better understand our customers and their behaviours. The outcome of this work will allow us to:

• be more customer-based in our thinking so we can provide better services by using approaches tailored to our different customers
• understand our customers better so we can make better and more effective decisions on ways of improving voluntary compliance.

Other pages in: Annual report - 2004 - Part 3

• Our compliance model from the 2004 Annual Report
• Making it easy to comply from the 2004 Annual Report - 1
• Making it easy to comply from the 2004 Annual Report - 2
• Tailored services meeting needs from the 2004 Annual Report - 1
• Focusing audits on long-term compliance from the 2004 Annual Report
• Managing debt and outstanding returns from the 2004 Annual Report - 1
• Managing debt and outstanding returns from the 2004 Annual Report - 2
• Managing debt and outstanding returns from the 2004 Annual Report - 3
• Adjudicating and ruling on the law from the 2004 Annual Report
• Using the full force of the law from the 2004 Annual Report

Date published: 15 Nov 2004

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