<\/p>\n
\nSocial Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver\n<\/p>\n
Parents earning more than $65,000 must support their 18-19-year-old children, with the government tightening eligibility for Jobseeker benefits.<\/p>\n
From November 2026, there will be a parental assistance test for jobseekers and equivalent emergency benefits, with the government saying parents who can support their children should do so, instead of the state.<\/p>\n
First announced at the Budget, the government had not decided where to draw the line at the time.<\/p>\n
The policy was supposed to start from July 2027, but the government is bringing forward implementation.<\/p>\n
Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston said the new Parental Assistance Test would comprise:<\/p>\n
a parental income test, demonstrating whether their parents earned income at or below the income limit, and\/or
\na parental support gap test, demonstrating they could not reasonably be expected to rely on their parents for support
\nthe income limit would be set at an income cut-out point for a couple with children receiving the Supported Living Payment and would be adjusted annually
\ncurrently this limit is $65,529 and is expected to rise to reflect the annual general adjustment of benefit payments<\/p>\n
The government expected about 4300 young people would become ineligible for support and 4700 remained eligible in the 2027\/28 financial year.<\/p>\n
As at June 2025, Upston said 15,045 18-19-year-olds were on Jobseeker support.<\/p>\n
“Going on welfare when you’re young is a trap, with recent modelling suggesting that people under the age of 25 on Jobseeker support will spend an average of 18 or more years on a benefit over their lifetimes,” she said.<\/p>\n
When originally announced, the policy was expected to save $163 million over four years.<\/p>\n
In contrast, the student allowance income threshold is $69,935.32 before tax, with the rate going down, if parents earn more than that.<\/p>\n
If the joint earnings are $127,701.81 (if the student lives with their parents) or $137,187.86 (if they do not), the student does not receive an allowance at all.<\/p>\n
Upston also announced that 18-24-year-olds participating in the Ministry of Social Development’s community job coaching service could apply for a $1000 bonus payment, if they found a job and stayed off the benefit for 12 months.<\/p>\n
The policy will start in October 2026, with the first payments able to be accessed a year later.<\/p>\n
Currently, 4000 places exist in the job coaching scheme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston. Photo: RNZ \/ Angus Dreaver Parents earning more than $65,000 must…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-60409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-podcasts","13":"tag-public-radio","14":"tag-radio-new-zealand","15":"tag-rnz","16":"tag-top-news","17":"tag-top-stories","18":"tag-topnews","19":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}