What counts as income for benefits

When you get a benefit or allowance from Work and Income, you need to tell them what other income you get — both regular and one-off payments.

Tell Work and Income about your income

If you do not tell them about your income, they may not pay you enough or pay you too much. If they pay you too much, you’ll have to pay it back.

Work and Income matches information with other government departments including Inland Revenue.

If you have a partner, you must tell Work and Income about their income too.

Relationships and payments — Work and Income

Regular income

Tell Work and Income about any regular income and payments you get. This is called declaring your income.

Declare your regular income, such as:

  • salary or wages
  • casual work — including cash or ‘under-the-table’ jobs
  • self-employed income
  • ACC weekly compensation or payments
  • pensions — including overseas pensions
  • rent that you receive
  • income from boarders — when you have 3 or more boarders
  • interest from savings or investments
  • insurance and trust payments.

Declare any other regular payments you receive:

  • child support or other payments from another parent or ex-partner
  • parental leave payments
  • help from your family
  • gifts of money, goods or services
  • payments from a reverse mortgage or home equity scheme.

Check out Work and Income’s website for more details about what income you need to declare to them.

Declare income — Work and Income

One-off or lump sum payments

Not all one-off or lump sum payments need to be declared to Work and Income. Check their website to find out if you need to tell them about a payment.

One-off or lump sum payments — Work and Income

Even if you do not have to tell Work and Income about a lump sum or one-off payment, you need to tell them about any money you earn, like interest, from that payment.

If you get compensation or ex gratia payments

Most compensation or ex gratia payments are not included as income for benefits.

Find out what these payments are and whether you need to tell Work and Income about a payment you’ve received.

Ex gratia and compensation payments — Work and Income

Ex gratia payments from Veteran’s Affairs

These payments and all income earned from these payments are not included as income for benefits. You do not need to tell Work and Income about these payments or the money you earn from these payments.

Ex gratia payments from Veteran’s Affairs New Zealand — Work and Income

How to tell Work and Income about your income

Find out how to declare your income to Work and Income.

Declare income — Work and Income

Talk to someone about your income

If you’re not sure whether your payment counts as income, contact Work and Income to talk about it.

If you’re under 65, freephone: 0800 559 009 (NZ only).

If you’re over 65, freephone: 0800 552 002 (NZ only).

Email: seniors@msd.govt.nz

Who to contact for more help

If you need more help or have questions about the information or services on this page, contact one of the following agencies.

Utility links and page information

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