Advocacy for our Older Community
Grey Power Rotorua
C Bavister, Secretary
May Ramblings
Walking the dog on these crisp mornings, I am glad to see the beautiful Autumn colouring in the gardens and trees around our beautiful city. With winter approaching here are two suggestions to keep you safe and happy: Check your smoke alarms, respectively install them if you don't have them or replace them if they are faulty. Fire & Emergency New Zealand offer free Home Fire Safety Visits to people, family and whanau who require fire safety advice. Phone 0800 693 473 for an appointment. Help to keep the storm drains clear of leaves, it may stop flooding your garage at the next heavy rainfall.
Also good news that the council have secured funding to have the Bath House and Museum renovations completed. It will be nice to have the buildings open again. Lastly the Inner City Community Safety Hub is back in town, next door to Starbucks (Link to map).
Consumer NZ
(Shortened)
POLi Payments - The Potential Danger
POLi payments allow people to make payments directly from their bank account to a merchant without the need for a payment services provider (a “middleman”, like Visa or Mastercard, that will charge a fee to process a payment). As a result, both the consumer, and the merchant, can save some money.
But the service comes with considerable risks, with consumers required to provide their internet banking log-in details – including their customer number and password – to allow the merchant to generate the payment.
Using POLi payments in New Zealand can potentially breach the terms and conditions of major banks, compromising consumer protection against fraud, not only for the current transaction but for all future ones as well. Despite being widely used by reputable businesses and government agencies, sharing personal banking information for POLi payments poses significant risks.
While POLi claims to be secure, giving away internet banking credentials can lead to fraud and scams. Australian banks have stopped accepting POLi payments due to security concerns and technological advancements, highlighting the need for New Zealand's banking infrastructure to catch up.
The lack of real-time payment systems in New Zealand leaves consumers with limited options, forcing them to use services like POLi despite potential breaches of bank terms. The issue underscores the need for banks to prioritize modernizing their systems and implementing Open Banking to provide safer payment alternatives for customers.
F Hohener
Membership Secretary
Snippets of Importance
Have You Paid Your 2024 Grey Power Subscription?
If you have paid, thank you. If not, please pay promptly to Grey Power Rotorua since the subscription is now overdue. Remember, you must be a financial Grey Power Rotorua member to belong to Grey Power Electricity (GPE) and receive cheaper electricity rates. You may receive a reminder from GPE to this effect. If you have already renewed your membership, just ignore this reminder.
Legal Education Survey
Thank you for all the replies of survey. This has been the best response of any survey we have done so far. We will put on a forum and have been in contact with the provider. They are quite busy and it won't happen until early to mid June. Keep an eye out for the announcement
Review of Code of Health & Disability Services Consumers’ Rights
Review of Health & Disability Commissioner Act 1994
We are pleased to announce that HDC has launched public consultation on its review to the Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers’ Rights (the Code) and the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994 (the Act).
We have published full and summary consultation documents seeking feedback on five topics. These documents are available in many accessible formats and in English and te reo Māori on our website: review.hdc.org.nz.
Submissions can be made online or by one of the alternative submission options noted on the website. Submissions are due by 5pm Wednesday 31 July 2024. We are also planning to be in Rotorua sometimes between 15-20 July across the consultation period.
We encourage everyone to have their say. We’ve put together resources including videos, posters and social media content on our website to make it easy for you to share information about the review with your friends, family, whānau and networks.
We’d love to hear how you are promoting the review, please email us at review@hdc.org.nz to let us know, to request other resources, or to ask any questions about the review.
Ngā mihi, nā
The Act and Code Review Team
Te Toihau Hauora, Hauātanga │ Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner
I am the Vampire Rabbit of Newcastle, England. Go and find out what my story is.
Calendar
Office Opening: Tuesday - Thursday, 11 a.m. - 2 p.pm.