Debt deductions

Any deductions you make to us are in addition to any that Inland Revenue may have requested, e.g. child support.

When deductions are made

If your employee has a debt with us, and we've been unable to contact them to arrange repayments, we may ask you to make deductions from their wages. 

Or your employee may ask you to make deductions from their wages and send it to us. 

Your employee could be either:

• permanent
• temporary
• contracted
• casual
• seasonal.

How it works

We'll:

• contact you to:
  • confirm the employee works for you
  • request that deductions are made from their wages
• send you and your employee the request by email or post.

We'll let you know:

• how much to deduct
• how long to make the deductions for
• the bank account details and reference number to pay the deductions into.

We can't tell you what the debt is for.

Frequency of deductions

You can make the deductions in line with your pay cycle.

If you make monthly deductions, we need to receive the first payment by the 20th of the following month from the date of the written request.

If your employee doesn't have a regular pay cycle, e.g. they're a seasonal worker, you can make the deductions based on when they're paid.

Change deduction amount

If your employee wants to change the deduction amount, they need to contact the Client Support Debt Management Unit by either:

• phone on 0800 558 008
• email at Client_Support_Debt_Management@msd.govt.nz

If we agree we'll contact you to discuss this and send you another written request with the new deduction amount.

Stop deductions

There may be a number of reasons why deductions are stopped. These can include:

• you close your business for a period of time, e.g. over Christmas
• the person no longer works for you
• the staff member goes on unpaid leave.

If you need to stop the deductions, you need to let us know straight away. Contact the Client Support Debt Management Unit by either:

• phone on 0800 558 008
• email at Client_Support_Debt_Management@msd.govt.nz 

We ask you to stop deductions

If we want you to stop deductions, we'll either:

• call you
• send a request by email or post.

We'll let you know when to stop the deductions.

If you don't make deductions

If you don't make deductions after we've requested them, the amount of deductions you haven't paid becomes a debt owed by your business. It may be recovered by Court action.