HOUSING —
BUILDING BONUS SCHEME
31. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the minister representing the
Minister for Finance:
I refer to the state government's
$117 million building bonus scheme, announced on 7 June 2020 for the provision
of a $20 000 grant to new home buyers with an estimated processing period of
eight weeks.
(1) How many applications for the $20 000 building
bonus have been registered with the Department of Finance?
(2) How many applications for the
$20 000 building bonus have been processed?
(3) What is the
current average processing time from lodgement of the bonus application to
determination of the application and funds delivered to applicant?
(4) Is the building bonus scheme
capped or uncapped?
(5) What
additional staffing or resources have the Department of Finance allocated to
address the blowout in processing time for building bonuses applications?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the Leader of the Opposition
for some notice of the question.
(1) As at 29 April 2021, the
Department of Finance had received 25 196 applications.
(2) As at 29
April 2021, the Department of Finance has paid 3 944 grants and rejected 195
applications.
(3) It is not
possible to provide an average processing time for applications due to a range
of factors. Over 98 per cent of applicants do not provide the necessary
information for the state and commonwealth grants, which results in double handling as Department of Finance staff pend the
application and contact applicants to request missing or incomplete
information and wait for it to be provided. Not all applications lodged are
eligible for immediate payment when processing is completed, as grants are only
paid after evidence is provided, the foundations have been laid or off-the-plan
purchases are registered on the certificate of title. The department is also
dealing with higher than expected levels of fraudulent applications being
lodged, which is impacting on processing times of applications.
(4) It is uncapped.
(5) Resourcing
has been progressively increased to process the significantly higher number of
building bonus and commonwealth HomeBuilder grant applications than
anticipated, with 57 full-time staff expected to be available when the most
recent recruitment processes are finalised in the near future.