Baby bungle mum seeks assurances from Winz

A grieving mother wrongly accused of keeping her baby son's body in her freezer has been offered flowers and financial help - but she wants an assurance that such a blunder will never recur.

Charlene Kihi said that since The Dominion Post revealed the blunder yesterday, Work and Income had sent her flowers, offered to pay her bills, buy food, move her to a new state house - and buy her a new freezer.

She was very grateful for the "fresh start" but called for assurances to prevent mixups.

"They shouldn't be sharing information if they can't get their facts right. And what are they going to do to stop it? I'd never want anybody to go through what I did."

Ms Kihi also expressed concern about the person who had presumably told Work and Income her baby was in a freezer.

"What about that woman? Has she been followed up? If she had read about it in the paper it would have a major impact on her."

Work and Income said the mixup "arose over confusion with another person's situation" - but police had not investigated any other houses for dead babies.

Police visited Ms Kihi's Palmerston North home on Friday, after allegations that the body of her four-month-old son Tuumoto was being kept in the freezer.

Acting on information from Work and Income, two plain- clothes police and a Victim Support person searched the house.

Tuumoto had been buried in July after dying of sudden infant death syndrome.

Work and Income deputy chief executive Patricia Reade said she was deeply sorry for the botchup but did not "want to cause any further distress by going into any more detail".

Assistant privacy commissioner Katrine Evans said yesterday that under the Privacy Act, government agencies that shared data had to ensure "reasonable care" that the information was accurate, up to date, and did not intend to mislead.

Though Work and Income would not explain how the mixup occurred, a spokesman said it was not because of a fault in its information-sharing procedures.

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