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Work homepage
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Overview
We can help you get ready to apply and find the right job for you. We can even help you while you're working.
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Get ready to work
You can get training, help with CVs and cover letters, and advice for job interviews.
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Find jobs
Find out what jobs are available, which job is best for you and how you can plan your career.
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Working
Whether you've just started a job or need some help at work, we've got your back.
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Lost your job
We'll help you get ready to find a new job and support you while you're between jobs.
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Start your own business
Get help to plan and set up a successful business or be a self-employed contractor.
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Benefits and payments homepage
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Overview
Take a look at the range of benefits and payments we have available.
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Not working
Redundancy, health condition or disability or another reason you can’t work
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Living expenses
Food, school costs, power, accommodation or other living expenses you need help with
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Relationship changes
You’ve had a relationship break-up, family breakdown or violent relationship end
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Health and Disability
Counselling, prescription and GP costs, medical alarms and other costs we can help with
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Seniors
Travelling overseas, how to apply, payment rates and dates, overseas pensions, income and other info for Seniors
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Caring
Caring for someone else’s child or someone with a health condition, injury or disability
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Urgent or unexpected costs
Dental, glasses, car repairs, fridge, washing machine, funeral or other urgent costs you need help with
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Children
Childcare, school uniforms, stationery, having a baby and other costs if you have children
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Moving to New Zealand
Payments you can get from us, settling into NZ, overseas pensions and more.
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Benefits and forms
A-Z list of benefits, forms, benefit rates
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On a benefit homepage
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Overview
Check out what you need to do when you're getting a benefit or other payment from us.
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Something's changed
Address, contact details, overseas travel, childcare, relationship or anything else that’s changed.
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Income
Declare income and income deduction tables
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Childcare
Change in your childcare situation, continue childcare payments, cohort entry schools and other childcare information
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Going overseas
Travelling or moving overseas may affect your payments.
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Re-apply
Re-apply for Jobseeker Support, Sole Parent Support, Temporary Additional Support and more
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Payments
Check or stop your payments, payment cards and other information
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Debt
Check your debt, repayments and other debt information
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Rights and responsibilities
Our commitment to you, obligations, complaints, benefit fraud and more
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Housing homepage
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Overview
Find out how we can help you with housing.
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Nowhere to stay
Get help if you have nowhere to stay right now.
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Find a house
Find out where to look for private housing, or apply for public (social) housing.
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Living in your home
Get help with accommodation costs, and advice on any housing issues and public housing tenancies.
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Moving house
Find out how we can help if you’re moving house.
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Other languages
Read some of our housing information in other languages.
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Words we use
The meanings of some words and acronyms we use on this site and in our publications.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Word or abbreviation | Definition |
---|---|
A | |
abatement | Where the benefit is reduced because of income that a person receives. |
Alternative Assessment |
A health or disability assessment provided to support an application for Invalid's Benefit. Some of the sources of an alternative assessment include:
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Appeal Authority / The Authority | Refers to the Social Security Appeal Authority. This is an independent judicial tribunal made up of people who don't work for the Ministry of Social Development. |
Approved Out of School Care and Recreation programme (OSCAR) | An OSCAR programme that has been approved as a Community Service under the Children, Young Persons and their Families Act 1989. A letter of approval is given to the OSCAR provider by Child, Youth and Family that details their current certification. |
B | |
beneficiary | A person who has been granted a benefit and also includes their partner if some or all of that benefit is payable to them. |
benefit | Financial assistance from the government. |
Benefit Review Committee (BRC) | A 3-member panel that is established to review decisions made by the Ministry to ensure that decisions are fair and correct with regard to procedure and the law. |
C | |
capacity for work | A person's ability to work. This takes into account any health condition, injury or disability the person may have. |
case manager | A Work and Income employee who works with clients. |
cash assets | Cash assets that belong to you or your partner (if you have one) that can be easily converted into cash. They may include money in the bank, savings, shares, stocks, bonds and loans to others. Cash assets don’t include things you need for day to day living, e.g. your home or your car, or any other vehicle with a market value of less than $2,000, such as a caravan or boat. |
CDA | Child Disability Allowance. |
child | A single person under the age of 18 years who is financially dependent on their parents or carer. It may also include a person who is 18 who is not financially independent and attending school or tertiary study up until the end of the school year in which they turn 18. |
civil union | A legally recognised union similar to marriage between 2 people. A civil union relationship is treated in the same way as a marriage relationship for the purposes of income assistance. |
Customer Service Representative (CSR) | A Work and Income employee who is based at a contact centre and responds to enquiries over the phone. |
D | |
de-facto relationship |
A de facto relationship is when 2 people:
For more information about relationships and how we work out if you're in a relationship see: Relationships and income assistance. If you or your partner are 16 or 17If you or your partner are 16 or 17, a Family Court Judge must consent to your relationship. You'll need to show us the court order from the Family Court Judge. Before 14 August 2018, we accepted written consent from the parents of the 16-17 year old. If you've already given the parents' consent to us before then, we can still use it. You don't need to get consent from a Family Court Judge. |
dentist | A health practitioner who is, or is deemed to be, registered with the Dental Council of New Zealand and cares for any disease, disorder or condition of the teeth. |
dependent child |
A dependent child is a child (whether own, stepchild, adopted, grandchild or mokopuna) who is:
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E | |
employment coordinator | A Work and Income employee who works with sole parents, people with a health condition and disabled people to help them find suitable work. Employment co-ordinators also work with employers and other agencies to ensure clients get the right support. |
employment-related training course |
A course is generally employment related where it will either:
The course must also be provided by a secondary school or tertiary institution. |
Enduring Power of Attorney | An Enduring Power of Attorney, unlike an ordinary Power of Attorney, operates after a person becomes mentally incapacitated. |
essential living costs |
These may include (but are not limited to):
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ex gratia |
A payment made to a person without legal obligation or acceptance of liability in recognition of harm experienced by that person. |
F | |
financially interdependent | Financially interdependent means that a person and their partner rely on both of their joint finances to support themselves and/or family. It doesn't mean that both of them need to be contributing equally. For example, if one person's income is a lot more than their partner's, they might pay the mortgage and most of the bills, and the other person might pay for the weekly shopping. |
full-time student | A person enrolled in a full-time course, or was enrolled in the semester or academic year just ended and who is or intends to be enrolled in a full time course in the next semester or academic year. |
full-time work |
Full-time work is paid work for 30 hours or more each week. This includes temporary or casual employment during any week that a person works for 30 hours or more. |
G | |
grant date | The date a person becomes entitled to a benefit. This is not the date the payment will be made. Normally the first payment is made during the following week. |
gross wage | A person's wage before any tax is taken out. |
H | |
Health and Disability Coordinator (HDC) | A Work and Income employee responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with health and disability providers, in particular with health practitioners. |
Health condition | This includes illness, sickness and a medical condition. For the purpose of getting income assistance, it can also mean pregnancy after the 26th week. |
Health practitioner |
A health practitioner is a person registered with an authority as a practitioner of a particular profession under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003. This includes a:
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high level of care | A high level of care is when a person has received care from a caregiver who was living with them and that care enabled them to remain in the community without receiving home-based disability services or it delayed their entry into residential care. |
hospital care | Hospital care means in-patient or residential care. It does not mean that the patient is under the care of a hospital specialist or receiving out-patient care. |
host doctor | A host doctor is someone who signs a person’s medical certificate and is usually their health practitioner, but can also be their dentist or midwife who must have a current practicing certificate. |
Health Practitioner Index (HPI) | A unique identifier for each health practitioner in New Zealand. The HPI number is on a health practitioner's annual practising certificate. |
I | |
ICD10 | International Classification of Diseases Version 10 - New Zealand currently has two coding systems for clinical diagnosis - ICD10 codes for inpatient events (used by hospitals) and READ codes for primary care events (used by health practitioners, Ministry of Health, and Accident Compensation Corporation). |
income | Income is any money a person gets before income tax is taken out. For example: wages, salary, commission, and Parental Leave payments. |
in-work tax credit | A payment by Inland Revenue to working families with dependent children who qualify. |
J | |
Job Search Service | Work and Income's service to assist working age clients to find employment within 13 weeks. |
L | |
Limited Service Volunteers (LSV) | A 6-week residential motivational training scheme for young job seekers, run by the New Zealand Defence Force. |
M | |
Main benefit |
When we say 'main benefit', we mean:
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MAP | The Manual and Procedures our staff use. |
married rate (in relation to New Zealand Superannuation) | The total amount payable to a married, civil union or de-facto couple, who are both entitled to get New Zealand Superannuation. |
MDA | Medical Disability Advisor - an on-line tool used by the Ministry to provide benchmarks on disability or incapacity duration based on job classification. |
midwife | A health practitioner who is registered with the Midwifery Council of New Zealand and trained to provide the necessary support, care and advice during pregnancy, labour and the period after childbirth up to 6 weeks. |
MSD | Ministry of Social Development. |
MYD | Ministry of Youth Development. |
N | |
NAC | National Accounting Centre - the centralised purchasing, payment and processing service for the Ministry. |
net equity | The net equity in a property is the house and/or land value minus the outstanding mortgage only (not including any interest on the mortgage). Net equity in a vehicle, caravan or boat is the amount of money you would get if you sold it at its current market value and after you had paid any debts owing on it. |
net wage | A person's wage after tax is taken out. |
non-cash assets |
Things you own that are easily converted to cash. Examples of non-cash assets are:
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NZS | New Zealand Superannuation. |
O | |
Offender Reintegration Programme | A joint initiative between the Department of Corrections and the Ministry of Social Development that aims to help prisoners find employment on release. |
open employment | Employment that isn't sheltered employment. |
ordinarily resident |
Ordinarily resident generally means a person who is normally and lawfully in New Zealand, intends to stay here and considers New Zealand to be their home. However, if you're applying for NZ Super or Veteran's Pension, this also includes:
If you're applying for another payment, this may also include a country NZ has a SSA with. It depends which payment you're applying for. When deciding if someone is ordinarily resident in the countries listed above, we look at:
Generally you're not considered to be ordinarily resident in these countries if you either:
Please note: a person cannot be ordinarily resident in 2 places at the same time. |
other authorised agency |
Other authorised agencies include:
These services must be approved under the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 by the Chief Executive of Oranga Tamariki. For the purposes of Unsupported Childs Benefit, however, other iwi or cultural involvement may be sufficient (a hui or cultural meeting, for example). |
Out of School Care and Recreation programme (OSCAR) | An OSCAR programme that has been approved by the Ministry of Social Development Approvals Team. The provider is given a letter of approval that details their current certification. More information is available at the overview of the OSCAR Approval process page |
P | |
paid employment | Paid employment includes employment for which a person gets non-monetary benefits, such as free board, payments in kind, or drawings from an unprofitable business. |
partner | A person's partner is someone they are legally married to, in a civil union or de facto relationship with. For the purpose of applying for income assistance, a person and their partner must be committed to each other and financially interdependent. For more information about relationships and how we work out if you are in a relationship see: Relationships and income assistance. |
part-time work | Work that is less than 30 hours per week. |
PATHS | Providing Access To Health Solutions - an initiative (between Work and Income, DHBs, PHOs and community-based NGO providers) offering intensive case management to assist people with complex health or disability needs into work. |
pay day | The day a benefit is due to be paid. |
PDEP | Personal Development and Employment Plan - a plan made with non work-tested clients. |
Planning and Assessment Module (PAM) |
A group seminar that forms part of the Job Search Service. Clients will meet as a group to;
|
Power of Attorney | A Power of Attorney is a formal legal document, giving one person the right to act on behalf of another person. It can be general, for example, allowing the agent to look after all financial matters, or specific, such as managing a bank account while the person is overseas. |
principal caregiver (in relation to a dependant child) | The person who has the primary responsibility for the day to day care of the child on a permanent basis. It does not include owners or employees of any childcare home or institution. |
proof of identity | Identification that shows who you are and your New Zealand residency status, such as a birth certificate, current passport or citizenship papers. |
psychologist | A health practitioner who is, or is deemed to be, registered with the Psychologists Board as a practitioner of the profession of psychology. |
R | |
Regional Commissioner (RC) | A Work and Income Employee who is responsible for leading their region and ensuring responsiveness and flexibility in developing, implementing and monitoring solutions to the social and labour market issues within their area. |
Regional Director (RD) | Responsible for the management of Work and Income's regional performance and the delivery of services in service centres and the community. |
Regional Disability Advisor (RDA) | A Work and Income employee who provides advice and recommendations on disability factors associated with benefit applications and the appropriateness of services. |
READ Codes | A diagnostic classification standard for coding health conditions in primary care. |
RecruitMe | RecruitMe is the system used by Work and Income to match job seekers to job vacancies. |
redundant | A person's employment is terminated because their employer have decided that the person's position is in excess to their needs. |
redundancy payment | A payment (after income tax is taken off) to a person who is being made redundant. |
refugee |
A refugee is a person who is lawfully in New Zealand whose refugee status has been recognised by:
|
regular (in relation to work) |
Work which isn't either:
|
rehabilitation | A process aimed at enabling disabled people to reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, psychiatric and/or social functional levels. It includes a wide range of measures and activities from more basic and general rehabilitation to goal-oriented activities, for instance vocational rehabilitation. |
reside | To live in a place permanently or for an extended period. |
Review of Decision (ROD) | An opportunity for a client to apply for a formal review of a decision that has been made about their financial assistance. |
Regional Health Advisor (RHA) | A Work and Income employee responsible for providing advice and recommendations on health factors associated with benefit applications and the appropriateness of services. |
S | |
salary or wages | Any money or award gained from employment. This includes commission. |
Services to Employers | An initiative that delivers services to employers according to their potential to provide Work and Income clients with sustainable employment opportunities. |
sheltered employment | Employment conditions that have been designed to cater for the needs of a person's disability or health condition. |
SNG | Special Needs Grant. |
Specialised Assessment | An assessment undertaken by a health or disability practitioner, engaged by Work and Income, to provide detailed information not able to be obtained elsewhere (eg addiction medicine specialist, psychologist, community worker). Work and Income meets the cost of this service. The requirement for a specialised assessment will be established by the regional health advisor or the regional disability advisor. |
Specified beneficiary (for Youth Clients) |
A person who is married, in a civil union, or in a de facto relationship and receives one of the following in their own right:
|
stable employment | Employment measure - in employment more than 91 days. |
suitable employment | Work that is suited to a person taking into account their circumstances. It can be work for any number of hours a week that is less than or equal to the hours needed to satisfy the work test. |
supporting a young person |
You take the main responsibility for a young person and:
|
T | |
temporary employment | Full employment that is for less than 26 weeks. |
THI |
Targeted Health Intervention - an initiative for clients who have a health condition or disability, who;
|
TOP | Training Opportunities Programme. |
U | |
UCB | Unsupported Child's Benefit. |
V | |
Voluntary Work | Work undertaken that is not paid employment (other than reimbursement of direct expenses) for a non-profit community organisation or other person. This does not include Activities in the Community, or work undertaken as part of a work experience or work exploration activity. |
W | |
WINZ | Work and Income New Zealand - a former name for Work and Income. |
Y | |
Youth Service | Youth Service offers guidance and practical support to young people receiving financial assistance or who are not in employment, education, training or work-based learning. |
YP | Youth Payment |
YPP | Young Parent Payment |