Accommodation Costs in Advance Grant

You may be able to get an Accommodation Costs in Advance Grant if:

• you have accommodation costs in advance you need to pay, e.g. rent, board or cabin hire
• the supplier (e.g. your landlord or head tenant) has agreed you can move into the accommodation if you pay the accommodation costs in advance, and
• you need the grant to pay the accommodation costs in advance.

We'll also take into account other factors, such as:

• your situation
• if you can afford to stay in the accommodation long-term
• how long you’ll be living in your accommodation (generally this needs to be at least 28 days)
• if this is the best payment for you
• what other help is available to you.

There are also residency and income criteria you need to meet.

Residency criteria

You must be either:

• getting a main benefit, NZ Super or Veteran's Pension, or
• ordinarily resident in New Zealand and either:
  • a New Zealand citizen
  • have a residence class visa under the Immigration Act 2009
  • recognised as a refugee or protected person under the Immigration Act 2009, or
  • getting a Special Needs Grant because you came to New Zealand on a temporary visa to be with your New Zealand partner and your relationship ended due to domestic violence.

Main benefit

Ordinarily resident

Income criteria

Getting an Accommodation Costs in Advance Grant also depends on:

• how much you and your partner earn
• any money or assets you and your partner have.

Income limits

Asset limits

Assets include money in the bank, or things like a caravan or second property. Assets don't include the things you need for day-to-day living, like the home where you live or your car.

How much you get depends on the amount of accommodation costs in advance you have to pay. The most you can get is 2 weeks of accommodation costs and you'll need to pay it back.

You can only get this payment twice in 12 months, unless there's an exceptional situation outside your control, for example:

• you need to move unexpectedly through no fault of your own, or
• you're in a family violence situation.

Call us on 0800 559 009

If you get NZ Super or Veteran's Pension, call Senior Services on 0800 552 002

We may need to book you an appointment either to come in and see us, or a phone appointment. We'll let you know if this is the case.

You'll need to provide proof of the amount of accommodation costs in advance. This will be an agreement signed by you and the accommodation supplier, e.g:

• a tenancy agreement, or
• an accommodation agreement.

If you share your tenancy

If you share your tenancy with:

• your partner, you can apply for your portion and your partner's portion of the accommodation costs in advance. Or your partner can apply separately for their portion.
• someone else, you can only apply for your portion of the accommodation costs in advance. The other person will need to apply separately for their portion.

If your application's approved, we'll pay the accommodation costs in advance directly to the accommodation supplier.

We'll check if they are already a supplier with us. If they're not, we'll ask them to register as a supplier by completing a 'Supplier Registration Form'. This is so we can make the payment to them.