Winz's wet wood bungle: Mother fuming after 'cheapest option' a fizzer

By council standards the maximum moisture level in wood should be below the recommended 25 per cent, Helena Simpson's wood measured between 38-52 per cent. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Hawke's Bay mother is concerned that Work and Income NZ is choosing the "cheapest option" to heat homes, and inadvertently providing wet wood to beneficiaries as a result.

In early June, Helena Simpson went through Work and Income to help get a quote to purchase fire wood for the winter.

She told her case manager she wanted to go through Donovan's Firewood or Woodstock who were both compliant with Hawke's Bay Regional Council's air quality standards, but said she was ignored and felt forced onto a supplier called Warm and Cozy.

"Donovan's had quoted me $380 for their wood but it seemed like all they wanted was to pick the cheapest option and told me that I would be getting wood from Warm and Cozy which were quoted as $300," she said.

Simpson paid for the firewood through a specialised assistance grant through Work and Income which is then paid back by deducting small amounts from her weekly payments over a long period of time.

The wood arrived within in a couple of days and she said it looked like it had been sitting "in a swamp".

"I called to check if the wood was dry and [a Warm and Cozy spokeswoman] that it was only rain wet and that it would dry up in a matter of days."

But after attempts to try and burn the wood in her council-compliant fireplace failed, Simpson decided to go to the council to have it tested.

"We tried to burn the wood, one night I came home and it was cold and I did the thing asking why no one had lit the fire and then they said that it wouldn't go, so I tried and it just sizzled.

"I knew the wood wasn't dry so I decided to go to regional council because I was over it, really.

"On the day I called them they sent someone out that afternoon to check the wood."

By council standards the maximum moisture level in wood should be below the recommended 25 per cent.

Simpson's wood measured between 38-52 per cent moisture.

"I tried for weeks to get my money back and return the wood but the owner came back with excuse after excuse in the end one of her employees was actually the one who helped to get my money back, it seemed like Work and Income didn't want a bar of it.

"It's just a hassle to have to deal with something like that and have to go back and forth for something that shouldn't happen."

Ministry of Social Development Acting Regional Commissioner for East Coast Naomi Whitewood said in a statement it had helped suggest a supplier to contact.

"Helena came to us needing firewood. We don't usually suggest to clients which firewood supplier to contact, but in this case we wanted to help Helena as much as we could to ensure she had heating."

Helena Simpson said she felt she was forced into having to pick the cheaper supplier of wood. Photo / Warren Buckland

Whitewood said they had not been made aware on any other cases of issues with wet wood being sold in Hawke's Bay.

It is not illegal to sell wet wood if the buyer knows that it cannot be burnt and needs to be stored until dry.

But in the case of unknowingly purchasing wet wood the buyer is entitled to offer it back to the supplier and have money refunded, or the wood replaced with a dry load.

Whitewood said it had arranged for the cord to be delivered but once Simpson let them know it was wet, a refund and collection was requested.

A Warm and Cozy spokesperson said it had refunded the money paid for the wood and was picking up the wood.

Simpson said it had yet to be picked up on Tuesday.

When questioned about the wood's high moisture content, the spokeswoman said dry wood can wet when people leave it in the rain.

"If you spent a day in the rain you would get 100 per cent let alone 50 per cent."

Donovan's and Work and Income have managed to help Simpson out by providing a small amount of wood that Simpson hopes will last the rest of winter.