Child support payment changes

29 May 2023.

From 1 July 2023, there are a number of changes happening around child support payments.

The main change is when you get child support payments through Inland Revenue (IR).

  • IR will share most types of child support payment information with us, and
  • our systems will automatically treat these payments as income when working out your benefit and most other payments you get from us.

This change will make it easier for you. It means you'll no longer have to tell us about most types of child support payments you get through IR.

The other changes include:

  • Sole parents on a benefit - there's no obligation for you to apply for child support through IR. If you do, IR will pass on the full amount to you and it will be counted as income.
  • Public housing tenants - all child support payments you get will be counted as income for your Income Related Rent assessment.
  • Young Parent Payment and Youth Payment - if the child support payments you get through IR go over the income limit:
    • we'll keep paying your benefit but at a reduced rate, and
    • the reduced rate will continue until it reaches a point you're no longer entitled to it. 
  • Temporary Additional Support - child support payments you have to pay through IR that are formula assessed may be counted as an essential cost.
  • Special Benefit - child support payments you have to pay through IR that are formula assessed may be counted as an essential cost.

For more information about each change, select the relevant heading below.

Currently, you need to tell us about any child support payments you get through Inland Revenue (IR).

Our staff will then manually treat these payments as income when working out your benefit and most other payments you get from us.

If you're a student and get a Student Allowance from StudyLink, this process won't change from 1 July. Read more about this on the StudyLink website.

Changes from 1 July

From 1 July 2023, IR will share formula assessed and voluntary agreement child support payment information with us. This means you won't need to tell us about most types of child support payments you get through IR. 

Our system will then automatically treat these payments as income when working out your benefit and most other payments you get from us.

There are some types of child support payments you'll still need to tell us about. These are listed in this section under the 'Child support you still need to tell us about' heading.

When IR share your child support information

IR will share monthly child support information with us around the 21st of every month, if the paying parent pays on time. If the paying parent pays late, IR will share it with us on the day they pay it.

The first IR information share for the month of July will be on 22 August. This is because child support is paid for the month that's just been.

Child support changes from 1 July - IR's website

How we treat your child support as income

When we get your child support payment information from IR, we'll treat this as your income for the next month. This means the next 4 or 5 weeks from the date you receive the child support payment. It could be 4 or 5 weeks, depending on the number of weeks until you get your next child support payment from IR (as long as the paying parent has paid on time).

We'll take the total amount of child support that IR has told us about and average it out over this 4 or 5 weeks so it's a weekly amount. 

Examples of how we treat your child support as income

We'll let you know if anything changes

We'll send you a letter every time IR share your child support information with us.

The letter will tell you:

  • the amount of child support IR shared with us
  • what your average weekly amount of income is, and
  • how much your benefit or payment from us will be.

If you think there's an error with the child support information we've used, you can talk to us. We may need to contact IR to confirm your information.

Child support you still need to tell us about

You'll still need to tell us about any child support payments you get:

  • from a private arrangement
  • through IR that relate to a period before 1 July 2023
  • for a child you get an Unsupported Child's Benefit for
  • if you're a student and get a Student Allowance from StudyLink
  • from an overseas agency
  • if you're living overseas and get a benefit under a reciprocal agreement
  • if they're Court Ordered lump sum child support payments.

Our staff will still manually treat these as income and work out your payment rates.

Sharing your information

IR share your child support payment information with us under our Approved Information Sharing Agreement. 

Sharing your information - our Privacy Notice
Information sharing with MSD - IR website

Watch a video about this change

View transcript of 'Sharing child support information with IR' video

There are a number of changes happening around child support.

As part of this, the Inland revenue will begin sharing information with MSD about your child support payments.

Most of the time you won't need to tell us about your child support payments because the information will be shared with us automatically.

There are still some types of child support payments that you will need to tell us about.

  • Private child support arrangements.
  • Payments owed to you for a period before 1 July 2023.
  • Unsupported child benefit excess payments.
  • Court ordered lump sum payments.
  • Overseas payments

If you're getting a student allowance, you'll still need to tell StudyLink about your child support payments like you do now.

You can find more information at workandincome.govt.nz/childsupport

Currently, sole parents who apply for a benefit must apply for child support payments through Inland Revenue (IR). 

When you apply for child support payments through IR:

  • the Government keeps the payment (up to an amount that's equal to your benefit payment)
  • IR passes on any excess amount to you, and
  • the excess amount you get is only counted as income for some types of payments.

Changes from 1 July 2023

From 1 July 2023, sole parents who apply for a benefit won't have to apply for child support payments through IR. However you still can if you want to. Or you can choose to either:

  • end an existing arrangement through IR
  • have another child support arrangement, e.g. a private arrangement, or
  • have no arrangement at all.

If you do choose to apply for child support payments through IR, or you're already getting these:

  • IR will pass on the full amount of these child support payments to you - the first payment will be on 22 August, if the paying parent pays on time.
  • the amount paid to you will be counted as income for your benefit and most other payments you get from us. This also includes any contribution you pay towards emergency or transitional housing.

You need to check that your bank account details are up to date in myIR, so any payments IR pay to you don’t go to the wrong account.

Child support changes - IR website

The information on this page under the 'You get child support payments through IR' heading also applies to you.

Watch a video about this change

View transcript of 'Child support for sole parents' video

Kia ora, if you're a sole parent on a benefit, we have some changes to child support to tell you about.

Child support payments will be passed on to you instead of being kept to help offset the cost of your benefit.

Provided your child's other parent pays their child support, you'll receive your first payment from the 22nd of August.

 This is because Inland Revenue pays child support for the month that has just been.

Depending on how much child support you get, this could affect the payments that you get from us.

Check with Inland Revenue that they have the right bank account for you, so they can make those child support payments to you.

You can check and update your details in MyIR

Sole parents used to have to apply for child support when they applied for a benefit. This is no longer a requirement. You can choose any arrangement that works for you.

You can find more information at workandincome.govt.nz/childsupport

If you live in public housing, the amount of rent you pay is based on your income, and the income of people you live with. This is called ‘Income Related Rent’. 

Currently:

  • any child support payments you get are only included as income if you don't have any other income
  • you must tell us about all child support payments you get.

Changes from 1 July 2023

From 1 July 2023:

  • most child support payments you get will be included as income. It won't matter if you have any other income or not. 
  • if you get child support payments through Inland Revenue (IR), they will share this information with us.

We'll use the shared information from IR and treat this as income if you get one of these payments from us:

  • a main benefit, e.g. Jobseeker Support or Sole Parent Support
  • NZ Superannuation or Veteran's Pension and you have a partner who doesn't qualify for this but is included in your payments
  • Accommodation Supplement
  • Disability Allowance
  • Temporary Additional Support
  • Special Benefit
  • Childcare Subsidy
  • OSCAR Subsidy
  • Residential Support Subsidy
  • Residential Care Subsidy, or
  • Employment Transition Assistance.

If you get one of these payments from us, you won't need to tell us about your child support payments from IR. You'll still need to tell us about any other child support payments you get, e.g. child support from a private arrangement.

If you don't get one of these payments from us, we can't use the information from IR. This means you'll need to tell us about all of your child support payments.

Your rent could increase

Because all your child support payments will be included as income, it could mean the amount of rent you pay may increase.

We won't make changes to your rent until either:

  • your next change in circumstances (after 1 July), or
  • your next annual rent review (after 1 July), whichever comes first.

When this happens, we'll check if you get child support payments through IR. If you do, we'll send you a letter to let you know the amount of child support IR shared with us. If you think there's an error with the child support information, you have 10 working days to let us know. We may need to contact IR to confirm your information.

Currently, all child support payments you get are treated as income when calculating your benefit. If your income goes above a certain threshold, your benefit will start reducing. Once it goes over a certain limit, you won't be entitled to your benefit and your payments will stop.

Changes from 1 July 2023

From 1 July 2023, if the child support payments you get through IR go over the limit, we'll keep paying your benefit but at a reduced rate. This is reduced by one dollar for every dollar of child support you get. We'll keep paying your benefit until it reaches a point you’re no longer entitled to it.

The information on this page under the 'You get child support payments through IR' heading also applies to you.

Temporary Additional Support is a weekly payment that helps you when you don't have enough money to cover your essential living costs. The amount you get is based on a number of things, including how much your essential costs are.

Temporary Additional Support

From 1 July 2023, child support payments you have to pay through Inland Revenue that are formula assessed can be counted as an essential cost. This means that if the total amount of your essential costs is higher: 

  • your Temporary Additional Support payments may increase, or
  • you may now qualify for Temporary Additional Support.

How to get your child support added as an essential cost

If you get Temporary Additional Support, we'll write to you closer to the time to let you know what to do.

If you don't get Temporary Additional Support:

  • but you get another payment from us, we'll write to you in July if we think you may qualify. The letter will tell you how you can apply for this.
  • and you don't get any other payments from us, you can use our Check What You Might Get tool from 1 July to check if you qualify and apply.

Watch a video about this change

View transcript of 'Parents paying child support' video

There are a number of changes happening around child support.

This might affect you if you are paying formula assessed child support through Inland Revenue.

Temporary additional support and special benefit are weekly payments from us that help you when you don't have enough money to cover your essential living costs.

If you're paying child support and receiving one of these payments from the 1st of July, you can apply to have your child support included as an essential cost.

If you get your child support costs included, you may see an increase to your temporary additional support or your special benefit.

Or you might qualify for temporary additional support now if you didn't before.

The amount you get is based on a number of things, such as how much your essential costs are. You'll need to let us know if you want to have your child support costs included. We'll send you a letter in July if we think you're eligible.

You can find more information at workandincome.govt.nz/childsupport

Special Benefit is a weekly payment that helps you when you don't have enough money to cover your essential living costs. The amount you get is based on a number of things, including how much your essential costs are.

Special Benefit was replaced by Temporary Additional Support, however some people are still getting it.

From 1 July 2023, child support payments you have to pay through Inland Revenue that are formula assessed can be counted as an essential cost. This means that if the total amount of your essential costs is higher, your Special Benefit payments may increase.

How to get your child support added as an essential cost

If you get Special Benefit, we'll write to you closer to the time to let you know what to do.