Work & Income office closes due to maggots

"Urgent pest control work" was carried out on the Glen Eden Winz office earlier this week. Photo / File

A West Auckland Work and Income office was temporarily forced to shut earlier this week due to a maggot infestation.

The Glenmall Community Link office in Glen Eden was closed on Tuesday afternoon after the pest issue was discovered by staff.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Social Development confirmed the office had been shut so "urgent pest control work" could be conducted.

"The ministry values the health and safety of both its staff and clients, and we closed the office as soon as we became aware of the problem.

"We called people with appointments to either postpone, or to direct them to either the New Lynn or Waitakere sites as an alternative. For people we could not contact, we had staff remain on-site to assist anyone showing up in person."

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He said no benefit payments had been affected as the result of missed appointments.

The office was reopened on Thursday.

Disgruntled Glen Eden residents took to social media to express frustration at the cancelled appointments.

One woman, Cassie Keene, wrote: "I had my appointment cancelled due to a 'cleaning issue' lol."

Moana-Lee Kapua wrote; "It's posts like this that make me happy not to be in a position to need to go in there!"