Covid 19 coronavirus quarantine: Government grants thousands of fee waiver requests

Four out of five travelers requesting fee waivers receive free or reduced-price stays at quarantine hotels in New Zealand.

As of March 14, the government had accepted 3,586 fee waiver requests and rejected 940, new figures from the Managed Isolation and Quarantine service showed.

Fee waivers could be granted to Kiwis who last left New Zealand before August 11, 2020 and planned to stay here for at least three months.

They could also be granted for compassionate reasons or cases of financial hardship, as well as in exceptional circumstances for refugees, diplomats or rescued at sea.

The free stays add to the $ 3.2 million in late payments that the government is now forced to pursue after travelers failed to pay their quarantine bills by the due date.

“Invoices are due 90 days from the invoice date, so they are only delayed from 91 days after the invoice date,” said a spokesperson for Managed Isolation and Quarantine.

“Once the invoices are due, they become a debt with the Crown. The amount due is $ 3,211,704.”

The government had sent bills worth $ 30.2 million to people who had been in managed isolation between Feb. 28 and when the rates were introduced late last year, the Herald previously reported.

And, which is good news for government bean counters, more travelers had started paying for their quarantined stays.

Last week, the Herald reported that only $ 10.7 million had been paid for managed solitary stays, which is equivalent to just a third of those billed by the government.

That number had now risen to $ 18.7 million, or closer to two-thirds of those billed.

The MIQ spokesperson said travelers were sent reminders 60 days after their hotel stay.

That reminder included details on how to pay, how to request an installment plan, and what to do if they felt they should be exempt from paying.

“After the due date, a new letter will be sent requesting payment. This letter also contains details on how to request an installment plan,” he said.

“If the person does not contact or pay, a decision will be made on the most appropriate course of action.”

These options included using a debt collection agency or the court to recover the cost.

“This decision will be made by applying a consistent set of factors and would only occur after 180 days after the invoice was issued, or when it is 90 days or more past due.”

“The regulations in their current form do not empower us to charge interest or overdue fees.”

The decision to grant a 90-day window before the payment due date was previously criticized by some community members.

Act Party leader David Seymour said: “I can’t believe the government is giving them 90-day terms. What are they, Noel Leeming?”

The director of the New Zealand Institute of Credit and Finance, Owen Goodwin, said he was “surprised that there is such a level of delay between billing and payment.”

“I thought when you leave a hotel, you basically pay on the spot,” he said.

Auckland pediatrician Professor Innes Asher, who visited her son, wife and young son in Sydney for Christmas, said she expected to pay the $ 3,100 fee when she left the M Social quarantine hotel on Auckland’s waterfront. January 12.

Instead, they told him that he would receive a bill. When the invoice had not arrived three weeks later, he sent an email to the ministry to request it.

“I was surprised, because we know how much it is costing the country,” he said.