Jobseeker Support

Whether you can get Jobseeker Support depends on your:

• age
• ability to work
• income, including your partner's income
• residency status.

Age

You must be either:

• 18 or older, or
• 20 or older if you have dependent children.

Ability to work

To get Jobseeker Support, you must be:

• unemployed and looking for full-time work, or
• in part-time employment and looking for more work, or
• need to reduce your working hours or stop work for a while because you're disabled, injured or have a health condition.

You can't get Jobseeker Support if you're a full-time student, but you may be able to get help from StudyLink:

StudyLinkexternal

Income

Whether you can get Jobseeker Support depends on how much income you get, and how much income your partner gets (if you have one).

Your combined weekly income must be less than these limits:

Residency status

You must:

• be a New Zealand citizen, or
• have a residence class visa.

You need to have lived continuously in New Zealand for at least 2 years since you:

• became a New Zealand citizen, or
• got a residence class visa.

You also need to be ordinarily resident in New Zealand.

Ordinarily resident

To check if you can get Jobseeker Support, and check what else you might qualify for, use our 'Check what you might get' tool.

Jobseeker Support is paid weekly. The table below shows the maximum amount you can get – if you or your partner have income, your payment may be less than this.

Maximum payment rates if you don't have children

Maximum payment rates if you do have children

If you have income

Your Jobseeker Support payment will reduce depending on how much income you or your partner have. If you have too much income, your Jobseeker Support will reduce to $0, then stop after 6 weeks at $0.

You can use our income deduction tables to work out how much Jobseeker Support you can get:

Income deduction tables

Winter Energy Payment

If you get Jobseeker Support, you'll also get a Winter Energy Payment. This is paid to you automatically during the Winter months.

Winter Energy Payment

You can apply online through MyMSD:

Apply online

You'll need to:

• fill in the online form in MyMSD
• complete your 'Next steps' in MyMSD, including getting your documents and creating a Jobseeker profile
• get a Work Capacity Medical Certificate from your health practitioner if you have a health condition, injury or disability that impacts your ability to work
• come to an appointment with us.

Your online application will tell you what you need to do. It will also check if you can get any other help from us. If you can't apply online, call us on 0800 559 009 to talk about other ways you can apply. If you're unable to call us, you can also visit any of our service centres:

Find a service centre

Child support

If you want to get child support through Inland Revenue, you can apply for this when you apply online for Jobseeker Support. Or you can apply through Inland Revenue. Any child support payments you get will be counted as income for your benefit.

Child support as income

When your payments start

We'll let you know when your payments will start. Some payments may have a stand-down period applied.

Stand-down periods

You'll get a Community Services Card

We'll send you a Community Services Card to help with the costs of healthcare and public transport.

Community Services Card

Family tax credit

If you have dependent children under 18, you may get a family tax credit. This can be paid with your benefit or from Inland Revenue (it depends what option you chose when you applied for your benefit).

Family tax credit (Inland Revenue)external

Attend a Kōrero Mahi work seminar

If you have full or part-time work obligations, you'll need to attend a Kōrero Mahi work seminar.

At the seminar you'll get support to help you get ready to work. We'll explain how we can help you find work, and get you set up to start applying for jobs.

When have your first appointment, we'll make a booking for you to attend a seminar.

Kōrero Mahi work seminars

Meeting your obligations

Obligations are the things you need to do while you're getting Jobseeker Support. If you don't do them, your benefit could reduce or stop.

Obligations include things like:

• telling us if something changes
• finding or preparing for work
• taking part in work ability assessments.

If you have a partner, they will have obligations as well.

Jobseeker Support obligations

Employment plan

To meet your obligation to find work, there are activities you'll need to do by a certain date. Some people will have an employment plan in MyMSD, where they can see these activities and the date they need to do them by.

Your Employment plan

Renew your medical certificate

If you've provided a medical certificate before, we'll send you a letter when this is about to expire. You'll need to get a new medical certificate before it expires, otherwise your payments may stop.

Renew your medical certificate or information

If you're getting Jobseeker Support and you still need it after 26 weeks (6 months), you have to reapply.

Reapply for Jobseeker Support

The information on this page is available in alternate formats.

New Zealand Sign Language

Watch the New Zealand Sign Language video on Youtube:

Audio

Listen to an audio recording of our Jobseeker Support information: