This note is not part of the regulations, but is intended to indicate their general effect.

These regulations, which come into force on 27 April 2007, are made under the Social Security Act 1964 (the Act). They extend the categories, prescribed by regulation 10 of the Social Security (Long-term Residential Care) Regulations 2005, of assets that are exempt from means assessment under Part 4 of the Act.

The new category of exempt assets, which is prescribed by new regulation 10(1)(g), is any ex gratia payment—

• made to a person, on or after 27 April 2007, by the Crown; and

• made in accordance with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on measures related to veterans.

When these regulations were made, the MoU was available through the website of the Joint Working Group on Concerns of Viet Nam Veterans: www.vietnamvetswg.govt.nz.

The MoU is not intended to be legally binding on the parties to it, but records their intentions on a package of measures related to Vietnam veterans and other veterans. That package contemplates ex gratia payments for the following people:

• Vietnam veterans who suffer from 1 or more of the prescribed conditions (chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and chloracne):

• spouses or partners (including former spouses or partners) of Vietnam veterans who appear to have died because of, and have not received an ex gratia payment because they suffered from, 1 or more of the prescribed conditions:

• people who are natural children of Vietnam veterans and who, as at 6 December 2006, suffered from 1 or more of the 5 accepted conditions (spina bifida, a cleft lip, a cleft palate, acute myeloid leukaemia, and adrenal gland cancer):

• the immediate families of people who are the natural children of Vietnam veterans, and who appear to have died because of 1 or more of the 5 accepted conditions (even if those children received an ex gratia payment because they suffered from 1 or more of those conditions).

The exempted payments are also—

• not income or cash assets (and any interest derived, directly or indirectly, from them is also not income) for the purposes of the Act, because of the related exemptions in regulations 4 and 5 of the Social Security (Income and Cash Assets Exemptions—Vietnam Veterans Ex Gratia Payments) Regulations 2007; and

• excluded from cash assets used in determining eligibility for temporary additional support, because of the related exclusion in regulation 8(3)(e) of the Social Security (Temporary Additional Support) Regulations 2005.