Copyright, Privacy and Disclaimer

Copyright

© Crown copyright 1988 - 2005

Material featured on this site is subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The Crown copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge for personal use without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a misleading context. Requests and enquiries concerning the reproduction of information on this website for any purpose other than personal use, or the use of scripts or codes, requires permission from Communications, National Office.

The permission to reproduce Crown copyright protected material does not extend to any material on this site that is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.

Images on this website are © Robert Titchener.

Privacy

The legislation administered by the Ministry of Social Development allows us to check the information that you give us in a form. This may happen when you apply for financial assistance and at any time after that.

The Privacy Act 1993 requires us to tell you that:

• The information you give us is collected under the authority of the legislation administered by the Ministry of Social Development.
• The information will be held by the Ministry of Social Development.
• The information is collected for the purposes of the legislation administered by the Ministry of Social Development (including StudyLink, Work and Income, Child Youth and Family and other services lines of the Ministry), and in particular for:
  • granting financial assistance and other assistance under the Social Security Act 1964 and Education Act 1989 (and any Regulations under it)
  • statistical and research purposes
  • providing advice to Government
  • providing support and services to you and your family
  • providing education related services
• The information you give us may be compared with information held by Inland Revenue, the Ministry of Justice, the Department of Corrections, the New Zealand Customs Service, the Department of Internal Affairs, the Accident Compensation Corporation, Housing New Zealand Corporation, Statistics New Zealand, Ministry of Health, Immigration New Zealand, the Ministry of Education, New Zealand Qualification Authority, the Tertiary Education Commission, Student Job Search and education providers.  It may also be compared with social security information (for example, pension or benefit information) held by other governments (including Australia and the Netherlands).
• Under the Tax Administration Act 1994, if you have dependent children, the information you give us may be shared with Inland Revenue for the purpose of administering Working for Families Tax Credits.
• Inland Revenue may also:
  • use the information for the purposes of child support, Student Loans and taxation
  • disclose it to the Department of Labour, Statistics New Zealand, the Ministry of Justice, the Accident Compensation Corporation, and the Ministry of Education
    disclose your personal information to your partner.
• Under the Privacy Act 1993 you have the right to ask to see all information we hold about you, and to ask us to correct that information.
• You are not required to give us information; but if you do not give us all the information we ask for, your application for financial assistance may be declined.

You may browse and access information contained within this website without providing any personal information. Where you voluntarily provide personal information (e.g. through online forms or email requests), we will only use that information to communicate with you.

The personal information transmitted using the Frequently Asked Questions electronic form is hosted in the United States by Rightnow Technologies. Any personal information you submit will be kept secure and will not be disclosed to any third parties.

About your personal information

Under the terms of the Privacy Act 1993 you need to know:

• Any information you submit to the Ministry of Social Development using electronic forms on this website is collected and will be used for the purposes of:
  • providing a response to questions asked through the website
  • analysing non-personalised statistics about the use of our website to continually improve it and to improve our customer service.

You can ask to see and correct any information we hold on you by writing to:
      General Manager
      StudyLink
      Private Bag 11070
      Palmerston North 4442

Disclaimer

The information provided on this Ministry of Social Development website is intended to provide general information to the public and all reasonable measures have been taken to ensure that the information set out in this website is accurate.

However, visitors to this website are advised that:

• The information provided does not replace or alter the laws of New Zealand or any other official guidelines or requirements
• The contents of this website should not be construed as legal advice. Before relying on any information in this website users should independently verify its relevance for their purposes
• The Ministry may change, delete, add to, or otherwise amend information contained on this website without notice
• The Ministry is not responsible for the contents or reliability of any linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing is for convenience only and should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. The Ministry cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and has no control over availability of the linked pages
• The Ministry does not implicitly or impliedly endorse any website, organisation, or people who have off-site links to the Ministry's website.