IRD glitch freezes KiwiSavers

Graham Billings is disgruntled with recent KiwiSaver problems. Photo / Dean Purcell

About 900 people enrolled in KiwiSaver have had their accounts accidentally frozen - and many may not have realised it.

The glitch was only resolved last week and has outraged an Auckland man who says it has taken him months to find out the cause of the problem.

Graham Billings noticed just before Christmas that his KiwiSaver fund, managed by AMP, had not received any of his payments since August.

Records showed his employer had forwarded the money to Inland Revenue.

He made several calls to AMP and IRD to try to sort out the problem, but no one was able to explain what had gone wrong. "The guy at IRD told me there had been a computer glitch, but he wasn't able to tell me when it would be fixed, or whether I would get any compensation. When I asked him if I was the only person having problems he said, 'probably not'."

According to IRD, the first time Billings contacted it about the problem was in March. But Billings, who is executive director of the Franchise Association, insists he made at least three calls over several months.

"It's just not good enough. They didn't seem to know what the problem was, and they couldn't tell me anything about what they were doing about it."

Yesterday, IRD admitted a "systems error" had affected around 900 KiwiSaver accounts.

IRD's group manager of service delivery, Heather Daly, said the situation arose when members' contribution details did not match data provided by employers - for example, when they opted out and then re-enrolled with the same employer, or when they switched provider.

The error meant the accounts were placed on hold.

"We apologise to anyone who has been affected by this error," Daly said.

Billings said that although IRD has paid 1.95 per cent interest on the delayed payments, some KiwiSaver funds would have earned much more than that over the same period.

Anyone with concerns about their contributions should call the KiwiSaver hotline 0800 549 472.