Overseas travel

Payments for the following benefits will stop from the day after you leave New Zealand:

• Jobseeker Support
• Jobseeker Support – Student Hardship
• Sole Parent Support and you have work obligations or work preparation activities
• Supported Living Payment and you have work preparation activities
• Emergency Benefit
• Emergency Maintenance Allowance
• Youth Payment
• Young Parent Payment
• Partners with work obligations, work preparation obligations with activities or youth activity obligations.

These payments may only continue for certain reasons. We have to approve the reason before you leave the country.

You may be able to leave New Zealand without an approved reason and continue to get your benefit for up to 28 days if you’ve told us before you go and you’re getting:

• Sole Parent Support and you don’t have any:
• work obligations
• work preparation activities
• Supported Living Payment and you don’t have any work preparation activities
• Youth Payment or Young Parent Payment and you don’t need to attend education, training or work-based learning, eg you’re going during a semester break

Your partner may be able to leave New Zealand if you’re getting Jobseeker Support or Supported Living Payment and they don’t have any work obligations or work preparation activities.

Approved travel reasons

If you’ve told us before you go overseas and we agree that you have an approved reason for leaving New Zealand, your payment may continue. Approved reasons could be:

• you have a job interview
• there’s a strong possibility that you might be offered a job
• you have an important event to attend for a family member, eg:
  • to visit a family member who’s seriously ill
  • a funeral
  • a wedding
  • to provide support to a party or witness to a court case
• you’re getting Supported Living Payment and:
  • competing in a multinational or international Special Olympic or Paralympic Games competition
  • going to get vocational training that’s been agreed with your case manager, and the training’s not available in New Zealand
  • going to get disability assistance dog training that’s been agreed with your case manager, and the training’s not available in New Zealand
• you, your partner, your child or your sibling have to get medical treatment that’s not available in New Zealand and is supported by the Ministry of Health or District Health Board.

Your payment can continue for up to 28 days, or up to:

• 6 weeks if you’re approved because you’re competing in a Special Olympic or Paralympic Games competition
• 2 years if you’re approved because you’re getting:
  • vocational training
  • disability assistance dog training
  • medical treatment not available in New Zealand.

You can tell us online, using MyMSD. You need to log in and select the ‘Something has changed’ option. If you have a partner and they’re travelling with you, they’ll need to tell us using their own MyMSD. You need to tell us:

• the date you’re leaving New Zealand
• the date you’re expecting to arrive back in New Zealand
• the reason for the travel – you have to provide proof of this.

If you get Youth Payment or Young Parent Payment, you also need to contact your Youth Service provider directly to tell them about your travel.

This information is available in other languages:

Chinese (PDF 347.89KB)

Tongan (PDF 305.75KB)

Hindi (PDF 304.76KB)

Samoan (PDF 303.78KB)