General entitlements

General entitlements

New Zealand Superannuation you may qualify for this if you are 65 years old or over and have lived in New Zealand for a total of 10 years since you turned 20 (5 of those years have to be since you turned 50).

Veteran's Pension provides an income for veterans who have served in a war or an emergency and who have reached the qualifying age for New Zealand Superannuation and receive a War Disablement Pension of at least 70% level of disability. It can also be paid to veterans who are unable to work because of a disability.

New Zealand has Reciprocal Agreements with some countries and residence there
may count as time in New Zealand.

If you have a spouse or partner who is a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident under the age of 65 you can choose to include them in your payments.

You can only include a non qualified spouse if they have permanent residence and live in New Zealand. If you do this, you could both get paid, but any other income either of you earn could affect how much you get.

If you don't quality for New Zealand Superannuation or a Veteran's Pension, you may qualify for other income support or extra financial assistance.

Most extra help is income and/or asset tested and will depend on your personal situation, however check your eligibility.

Extra help you could be entitled to

You may also qualify for extra financial assistance. Most extra help is income and/or asset tested and will depend on your personal situation. Talk to your case manager to check your eligibility. Extra help includes:

Accommodation Supplement is a payment that can help with your rent, board or the cost of owning a home. You may be able to get it if your income and cash assets are lower than a certain amount, but you or your partner cannot get it if you rent a property owned or managed by Housing New Zealand.

Advance Payments if there is something you really need but can't afford to pay for right now (like appliances, rent or school uniforms) you may be able to get some of your benefit paid ahead of time. You need to pay it back and there are other conditions.

Away From Home Allowance if you have children 16-17 years old living away from home to go on a tertiary or training course you may be able to get this allowance to help with their living costs.

Care Supplement is a payment is for former foster parents who are caring for someone else's child and getting an Orphan's Benefit or Unsupported Child's Benefit for the child after that child has been discharged from care under the CYPF Act.

Child Disability Allowance if you are caring for a disabled child. It does not depend on your income or costs, but the child must be under 18 years old, have a physical or mental disability and need constant care and attention.

Childcare Subsidy if you have preschool children who go to an early childhood education service, the subsidy can help with your childcare costs.

Civilian Amputee Assistance is a payment that assists people with some of their costs when they are required to attend a Limb Centre.  It is paid so people are not prevented from attending a Limb Centre to have an artificial limb fitted, adjusted or repaired because of the cost involved.  This assistance applies equally to amputees or people who were born without a limb.

Community Costs is a non-taxable payment that can be paid to people receiving treatment in short-term residential treatment programmes to help them to reintegrate into the community at the end of their treatment. It provides financial assistance to people to help meet their essential ongoing costs in the community that cannot be met from an amount equivalent to the personal allowance or other resources.

Community Services Card this card is income tested and provides you with subsidised prescription charges and reduced fees for after hours doctors visits and GP visits outside your PHO. If you are eligible for a Community Services Card, this will be indicated on the back of your SuperGold Card. You will no longer need a separate Community Services Card.

Family tax credit (formerly Family Support) is paid to some people on behalf of Inland Revenue. Only people who are receiving a benefit/ pension a person get family tax credit. You cannot receive other Working for Families Tax Credits. People receiving New Zealand Superannuation or Veteran's Pensioners with dependent children should contact Inland Revenue for more details.

Funeral Grant if your partner, child or parent has died - or you are arranging the funeral for someone, you may be able to get this grant to help with their funeral costs.

House Modification Funding provides funding for people with serious disabilities to enable them to have essential alterations made to their home to meet their specific needs. A person does not have to be receiving a main benefit to qualify for House Modification Funding.

Invalids Benefit if you have a permanent and severe sickness, injury or disability that stops you working or makes it difficult for you to work, you may be able to get this. You must be 16 years old or over and have lived here for a number of years.
 
Living Alone Payment if you live alone, you may qualify for the Living Alone
Payment in addition to your New Zealand Superannuation or Veteran's Pension. You can get the payment from the date you started living alone or the date we receive your application, whichever is later. If your partner has died recently and you apply within 28 days, the payment can be started from the day after your partner died.

Orphans Benefit and Unsupported Childs Benefit if you are looking after someone else's child because the child's parents have died or can't be found, or can't look after their child because they have a long-term illness, you may be able to get this benefit. You need to be:

• 18 years old or over and the main caregiver of the child and
• expect to care for the child for 12 months or more and
• not be the child's natural or adoptive parent.

Recoverable Assistance Payment this is for people not receiving a main benefit. If you need something but cannot afford to pay for it right now (like appliances, rent or school uniforms) you may be able to get this assistance. You need to pay it back and there are other conditions.

Residential Care Loan is a loan to assist with the cost of residential care if a person is not financially eligible for the Residential Care Subsidy in a contracted care services provider facility.

Residential Care Subsidy if you are needs assessed as requiring residential care you may be eligible for a residential care subsidy if your assets are at/under the applicable threshold. If you have assets over the applicable threshold you may be eligible for a residential care loan.

Residential Support Subsidy is for people with physical, intellectual or psychiatric disabilities (including drug and alcohol rehabilitation) who are receiving residential care services.

Social Rehabilitation Assistance is for people who are in an approved residential social rehabilitation programme and the person's benefit doesn't fully pay the fees charged.

Special Needs Grant is a one-off payment to help with urgent things like food and emergency dental or medical treatment. Whether you qualify for a Special Needs Grant depends on your personal situation, and you must have no other way to meet your costs.

Special Transfer Allowance provides non-taxable assistance to people who received a Tenure Protection Allowance, but who can no longer receive it because they moved house or because Housing New Zealand sold their house.

Temporary Additional Support if you're in hardship and urgently need help with your essential living costs and you have no other way of meeting these costs, please talk to us. You will not get Temporary Additional Support if you currently receive a Special Benefit. Your Special Benefit will continue until you no longer need it.

Total Mobility Assistance provides subsidised taxi fares to people with disabilities involving substantial mobility constraints. It involves the use of taxi vouchers that provide a discount of (usually) 50 percent off the normal taxi fare. It also provides funding assistance for the purchase and installation of wheelchair hoists in taxi vans.
 
War Disablement Pension is provided for veterans who have a disability, which is attributable to their service in the Armed Forces.

The following brochures contain more information on extra help you could be eligible for.

General entitlements and extra help contacts

• For more information on assistance for people 65 years and older, please visit the Work and Income website or call 0800 552 002
• For Veteran's Pension enquiries contact our Veteran's Pension Centre on 0800 650 656 or fax 0800 999 996
• For War Disablement and Surviving Spouse and Partner pensions enquiries phone 0800 4 83 83 72 or visit Veterans' Affairs New Zealand website
• If you are deaf, hearing impaired, or find it hard to communicate by phone, you can send a message to Work and Income's Deaf Link freefax on 0800 621 621 or email MSD_Deaf_Services@msd.govt.nz