KEY POINTS:
KiwiSaver contributions from as far back as August have not been allocated to hundreds of savers' accounts because of an information breakdown between Inland Revenue and fund manager ING.
The fault, at Inland Revenue's end, has meant the money has had to sit in a general fund until ING can work out which saver has contributed what.
ING has yet to decide how to distribute interest earned on the cash.
In a statement IRD confirmed that some "messages", as they're termed, allowing providers like ING to allocate funds to individual KiwiSavers, were "scrambled". The majority of the problem messages had now been resent.
However, default KiwiSaver provider ING said it meant it had been unable to allocate any of the contributions it received from IRD on the days concerned.
Head of marketing Steven Giannoulis said the system was structured so that ING had to allocate a complete batch for the day, and without full information it couldn't move.
"We don't apply anything on that day, rather than saying, `okay, we can work out these 10 people but we can't work out these 20 people'," he said.
ING was now reconciling the resent messages with the amounts it had received. Assuming no more problems, January KiwiSaver contributions would be allocated to savers' accounts this week.
The scrambling of messages occurred in January and February. Giannoulis reminded savers that there was a three-month lag between funds being collected by IRD and being onsent to KiwiSaver providers, so for people who had joined the scheme in September their first contributions would have arrived at ING in January.
Affected investors say they have been trying for weeks to find out what's been going on.
Auckland man John Macfarlane, who joined KiwiSaver six months ago, said his first funds didn't leave IRD until February 18. That was when he started contacting ING to ask where his contributions were.
His first monthly contribution finally arrived in his ING account on Monday. "I've no idea of course which month," he said. "This could be any of the six that have gone across."
An administrator for a North Auckland employer, with around five staff in ING KiwiSaver funds, said he had repeatedly contacted IRD and the fund manager over the past month.
"All of us that are in ING, none of us have got anything credited to our account, regardless of how early we joined it." He said the first employee had joined in August.
A Queenstown couple who joined around September said the first of their contributions finally appeared in the wife's account in recent days.
Giannoulis confirmed the unallocated contributions had been earning interest as part of a general fund, but said ING would have to work out with IRD what the implications were of the fund manager not being able to apply the money.
He said they hadn't "done the thinking" yet about whether it should go to the affected individuals.
"You're probably right, that's probably what we have to do," he said, when the Herald asked why it was an issue.
Macfarlane was surprised to hear there was a question mark over the interest.
"That's my money," he said."It's never occurred to me that it would not go into my account."
KIWI CALAMITY
* KiwiSaver contributions from hundreds of investors haven't been allocated to their ING accounts because of an Inland Revenue information error.
* Affected savers say contributions from as far back as August haven't appeared in their accounts, and they've spent weeks trying to find out what's going on.
* ING says it's now going through recent information from IRD and hopes to have the first contributions allocated this week.
