Stand-down periods

Information about stand-down periods and how long they are.

What a stand-down is

Most weekly benefits have a stand-down.

This is a period of time where you can't get any money from us. It's usually 1 or 2 weeks after your application is approved.

Example

  • Your application is approved from Monday 3 January 2022
  • You have a 2 week stand-down period
  • Your payments start from Monday 17 January 2022.

Left your job voluntarily or fired for misconduct

If you've left your job without a good reason or have been fired for misconduct, you may still need to wait up to 13 weeks before your payments start.

This 13 week period is a non-entitlement period, not a stand-down.

Redundancy pay

If you're made redundant and get redundancy pay, you'll have a stand-down of 1 or 2 weeks. It depends how much your redundancy pay is.

The stand-down period for redundancy pay has changed over time. If you've had a redundancy payment, you can ask us to check if we treated this correctly when working out your stand-down period.

Redundancy and benefit payments

When your payments start

Your payments will start from the date after your stand-down finishes. If you've been working recently, your payments may take longer to start, it depends on your situation.

Once your payments start, you won't get any money in the first week. This is because we pay you for the week that's just been. This is called arrears.

More information about how payments work
More information about being fired for misconduct or leaving voluntarily

When you don't have a stand-down

You won't have a stand-down if:

  • you transfer from one benefit to another
  • your benefit is suspended and then resumed again
  • your benefit is cancelled because you find a job and then you go back on a benefit within 26 weeks.

You also won't have a stand-down if you get New Zealand Superannuation or Veteran's Pension.

Information

If you need money during your stand-down period to pay for urgent or unexpected costs, we might be able to help.

Urgent or unexpected costs

Work out how long your stand-down is

How long your stand-down is depends on:

  • your average weekly income (before tax) in the last 26 or 52 weeks, and
  • the number of children you have.

If you have a partner, we'll base the stand-down on whoever has the highest income in the last 26 or 52 weeks. We'll only use one income to work out the stand-down period.

Number of children

Average weekly income

Initial stand-down

None

 $0 - $1,422.26 1 week
$1,422.27 and over 2 weeks

One

 $0 - $1,502.26 1 week
$1,502.27 and over 2 weeks

Two

 $0 - $1,582.26 1 week
$1,582.27 and over 2 weeks

Three

 $0 - $1,662.26 1 week
$1,662.27 and over 2 weeks

Four

 $0 - $1,742.26 1 week
$1,742.27 and over 2 weeks

Five

 $0 - $1,822.26 1 week
$1,822.27 and over 2 weeks

Number of children

Average weekly income

Initial stand-down

None

 $0 - $1,502.26 1 week
$1,502.27 and over 2 weeks

One

 $0 - $1,582.26 1 week
$1,582.27 and over 2 weeks

Two

 $0 - $1,662.26 1 week
$1,662.27 and over 2 weeks

Three

 $0 - $1,742.26 1 week
$1,742.27 and over 2 weeks

Four

 $0 - $1,822.26 1 week
$1,822.27 and over 2 weeks

Five

 $0 - $1,902.26 1 week
$1,902.27 and over 2 weeks

If you have more than 5 children, you need to:

  • go to the tables under the 'You're single' or 'You have a partner' headings above
  • find the average weekly income amounts for the 5th child, and
  • add $80 for each extra child to the average weekly income amounts.

For example

  • You have a partner and 7 children.
  • Under the 'You have a partner' heading, the average weekly income for the 5th child is:
    • $0 - $1,902.26 for 1 week and
    • $1,902.27 and over for 2 weeks
  • You need to add $160 to these amounts:
    • $1,902.26 + $160 equals $2,062.26, and
    • $1,902.27 + $160 equals $2,062.27.

This means that if your average weekly income is:

  • $0 - $2,062.26, you will have a 1 week stand-down
  • $2,062.27 and over, you will have a 2 week stand-down.