Gloriavale's use of millions of dollars in Working For Families payments will be investigated by the Government.
It follows a Newshub investigation where expelled member John Ready says the sect's leaders have control of the money.
- John Ready's struggle without his family after Gloriavale expulsion
- 'Please leave': Gloriavale leader confronted over expelled member
Mr Ready's family of nine kids gets a significant Working For Families payment from the Government, but he says they don't control the money - Gloriavale's leaders do.
"They want total control over it, and you have no control," he says.
On Wednesday, Finance Minister Grant Robertson ordered officials to look into it.
"I want to get some advice to see how that stacks up legally," he told The AM Show.
Mr Ready says the money went into his wife Purity's account - and straight out again.
"You sign your bank account authority over to the financial controller."
But when their daughter Unity quit the sect for the outside world aged 17, her parents decided to divert the Working For Families payment to her, to try to "get her on her feet", according to her father.
A bank statement shows Mr Ready forwarded their daughter two of the family's fortnightly Working for Families payments of $1386.
But Mr Ready, who has been expelled from Gloriavale for offences including getting caught with a religious pamphlet, says the leaders soon noticed.
He and his wife were called before the leaders, who are called 'Shepherds'.
"We were given a massive dressing down," he says. "Having contraband religious material is one thing, putting your hand on money is quite another - it's worse."
Mr Ready says he and his wife Purity providing financial support for their daughter was regarded as a sin. He says Purity repented and gave the money back.
"Basically the tactic is domination through condemnation. My wife ended up re-diverting it back to Gloriavale under that pressure."
The Ready family was getting $1386 a fortnight from Working For Families, working out to $36,000 a year.
There are about 90 families in Gloriavale of a similar size, meaning a rough calculation of $3.2 million a year on the taxpayer.
The Finance Minister told The AM Show that it "seems like an unusual arrangement".
Lawyer Grant Cameron is preparing to take action for Mr Ready over his expulsion.
"It raises serious Employment Contract, Human Rights and I think Charity Act issues," he says. "So there's quite a lot."
Gloriavale's leaders have declined to comment - but sooner or later, they might be forced to explain.
Newshub.
