Living overseas if you get NZ Super or Veteran's Pension

You can apply to keep your NZ Super or Veteran's Pension payments going while you're living overseas if you:

• intend to live overseas, and
• are not moving to the United Kingdom (UK).

If you're living in the UK, you can't get NZ Super or Veteran's Pension. You may be able to get a UK benefit or pension instead under the UK Social Security Agreement - living in the UK.

If you used an SSA country to meet residence criteria

When you applied for NZ Super or Veteran's Pension, you may have had to use a Social Security Agreement (SSA) country to help you meet the residence criteria.

This means you may have included time you spent:

• living in a country that NZ has a SSA with, and/or
• contributing to a SSA country's pension scheme.

If you used an SSA country to meet the residence criteria, you can live in that country you used (except the UK). If you're not going to live in the SSA country you used, you need to meet the residence criteria without using the time spent from that country.

For example

If you included time in Canada to meet the residence criteria, you can live in Canada. If you're not going to live in Canada, you need to meet the residence criteria without using your time in Canada.

Humanitarian work

If you're going overseas to do humanitarian work, it needs to be unpaid, voluntary work that's full-time. It also cannot take away another person's paid employment.

It must be through a recognised aid agency as determined by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), e.g:

• Red Cross
• United National Volunteers
• Volunteer Services Abroad
• World Vision.

The recognised aid agency's main purpose must be the giving of aid and assistance to less advantaged communities.

You also need to be ordinarily resident in New Zealand while you're doing humanitarian work overseas.

If you're still using an SSA country to meet the residence criteria, you may not be able to keep getting your payments while doing humanitarian work. It depends on the agreement we have with that country.

Your partner is included in your payments

If you have a partner who's included in your NZ Super or Veteran's Pension payments, their payments will stop when you leave New Zealand. This is because they won't qualify for their payments. Their payments won't stop if you're going overseas to do humanitarian work.

If you're going to a country we have a Social Security Agreement with, your partner can apply for a payment in that country.

How much you get depends on:

• what country you're going to live in
• what arrangement or agreement New Zealand (NZ) has with that country.

When you apply, we'll let you know how much you can get.

If you get an overseas pension, this could be affected. You need to contact the agency you get the pension from to let them know you're going overseas.

Living in a country NZ has a Social Security Agreement (SSA) with

Some countries have their own SSA with New Zealand. The SSA sets out the rules around how much you can get. It also sets out the rules for any overseas pension you receive.

Living in a Pacific country NZ has an arrangement with

New Zealand has a special portability arrangement with 22 Pacific countries. The arrangement sets out the rules around how much you can get.

You'll get the full basic rate or a percentage of the basic rate. It depends on the number of years you've lived in New Zealand since age 20.

The basic rate is either:

• if you're single, $1,153.60 gross per fortnight, or
• if you have a partner, $952.94 gross per fortnight.

If you get an overseas pension, your payments will be affected.

Living in another country

If you're going to live in a country that doesn't have a SSA or arrangement with NZ, you may be able to get your full NZ Super or Veteran's Pension payment. It depends on the number of months you lived in New Zealand between the ages of 20 and 65.

This is the same for people who are travelling overseas for more than 26 weeks. For full details of how much you can get, see the Travelling for more than 26 weeks page.

If you get an overseas pension, your payments will not be affected.

Call our International Services team to let us know about your plans.

Complete the application form and gather your documents:

• your plane ticket or travel itinerary showing the departure date, and
• proof of your overseas bank account number (if you want payments to go into this).

Email the application form and documents to us at international_services@msd.govt.nz

If your travel dates change, you'll need to let us know and email us your new plane ticket or travel itinerary.

If your application is approved, we'll let you know how much you'll get while you're living overseas.

Humanitarian work for 156 weeks or less

If you're going to do humanitarian work for 156 weeks (3 years) or less, you don't need to complete the application form.

You need to call us and book an appointment to come in and see us.

You'll need to bring proof of:

• the recognised aid agency you're working for
• how long you'll be working for them
• what the work is for, and
• that the work is unpaid, voluntary and full-time.

If you're not doing humanitarian work, you can choose to have payments made directly to either your:

• NZ bank account every 2 weeks, or
• overseas bank account every 4 weeks.

If you choose to be paid to your overseas bank account:

• it can take around 4-6 weeks to change your payments to this account.
• don’t close your New Zealand account until you receive your first payment into your overseas account.

If you're doing humanitarian work, your payments will be made to your NZ bank account every 2 weeks.

Taxes

If you're not doing humanitarian work, you will not have to pay New Zealand tax on the payments you get from us. You may have to pay tax in the country you're going to live in. You'll need to contact their tax department for information about this. 

We'll send you a tax certificate every April. This will be sent to your overseas address and you'll also be able to see it in MyMSD. It will show what you have been paid during the previous financial year while you have been overseas.

If you're doing humanitarian work, you will continue to pay NZ tax on the payments you get from us.

If you're visiting New Zealand temporarily or on holiday, you can continue to get the same payments as you get when overseas.