When you apply to Work and Income for a benefit or allowance, and while you’re receiving it, you need to tell them if you get other income — either regular payments or a one-off.
If you do not tell them about your income, they may not pay you enough or pay you too much. If they pay you too much, you have to pay it back. Work and Income also matches information with other government departments including Inland Revenue.
If you have a partner, you must tell Work and Income about their income too.
Regular income
You need to tell Work and Income about what you earn from working, and other regular income, such as child support, ACC weekly compensation, pensions, rent, interest or help from your family.
Income from work
Wages or salary
Tell Work and Income about any regular wages or salary you get — the gross (before tax) amount. You also need to tell them every time your pay changes, for example if you:
do some overtime or change the number of hours you work
If you run your own business and you do not know how much you’ll earn, you must tell Work and Income what you expect to earn. They’ll want to see your business accounts.
If you get pension or superannuation payments, other than NZ Superannuation or a Veteran’s Pension, you need to tell Work and Income. Examples include an overseas pension or a private superannuation scheme through your employer.
You need to tell Work and Income about income you get:
from renting out a property you own
renting out something else you own like a car or caravan, or
taking in a boarder.
You need to tell Work and Income about all the income you get from a rental property and any expenses you've paid, such as rates and insurance. They assess how much income you get from your rental property.
You do not always need to tell Work and Income about one-off payments of cash or gifts of personal property. It depends on the benefit you’re getting.
No matter what benefit you’re on, you must tell Work and Income if you get:
a survivor’s grant from ACC
a lump sum for child support through an arrangement with your former partner or someone else.
Even if you do not have to tell Work and Income about a lump sum or one-off payment, you need to tell them about any money you earn, like interest, from that payment.
If you get Accommodation Supplement, Temporary Additional Support or Special Benefit
You need to tell Work and Income about all one-off or lump sum payments you get:
for compassionate reasons, for example from an employer because:
your partner has died while at work
you get sick or injured
from a Lotto win, Bonus Bonds or other gambling, including the TAB
from a reverse mortgage or home equity scheme
as a gift — unless it’s something small like cash or vouchers for your birthday
from selling assets such as a house, car or boat
from compensation or an ex gratia payment
from someone who leaves you money in their will
from the sale of someone’s estate after they die
because you were the victim of a crime — a payment through Victim Support.
Compensation is money paid to you in settlement of a claim and is usually ordered by a court. Ex gratia payments are paid to you because someone believes you’ve been harmed, even though legally they do not have to pay you.
Tell Work and income about money you get as compensation for:
losing money, land or goods
services you’ve provided
a personal grievance at work.
You do not need to tell Work and Income about compensation or ex gratia payments for harm that’s been done to you. You do not usually need to tell them for 12 months about any money you earn from investing the payment.
If you or your family were victims of war or harmed because of your service for NZ in the Vietnam war, then you do not have to tell Work and Income about ex gratia payments and, in some cases, about any money you earned from investing it.
