Lottery prize money or gambling winnings

What are one-off winnings?

One-off winnings are money you win once through gambling. These include winnings you get from Lotto or any other lotteries, pokie machines and TAB.

How it affects your benefit and allowances

You only need to tell us about any money you win if you:

• get Accommodation Supplement, Temporary Additional Support or Special Benefit
• expect to earn income from the winnings

If you give some of the money away to family as a gift, this could affect your benefit.

Income from your lottery or gambling winnings

If you invest or save the money you have won, any interest, dividends or rent you get is counted as income.

You must tell us about it if you or your partner get an income-tested payment. Examples of income-tested payments are benefits or NZ Super or Veterans Pension with a Non-qualified Spouse.

Example

A client wins $10,000 on the lottery. They use half of the money to pay off their credit card. They put the $5,000 they have left into a high-interest bank account. They have to tell us about any money in interest they get from the bank account.

If you have any questions about how your winnings may affect your payments from us, please call us.