New parental test for Jobseeker for 18- and 19-year-olds from November
Some single 18- and 19-year-olds will need to prove their parents are unable or unwilling to support them to get Jobseeker Support from 2 November. Advocates say the rule could leave young people in violent or abusive homes unable to leave.
RNZ reported on 14 September that the requirement is a parental assistance test. It will apply to single 18- and 19-year-olds seeking Jobseeker Support and the equivalent Emergency Benefit. The change was passed under urgency months before the election. It expects parents to support their children in the first two years of adulthood.
Aaron Hendry, general manager of youth homelessness charity Kick Back, said young people in unsafe situations may feel trapped and unable to leave, at risk of homelessness or staying and continuing to be victims of abuse. Isaac Gunson, spokesperson for Child Poverty Action Group, said the Jobseeker benefit is vital for young New Zealanders trying to escape bad situations and will fall harshly where abuse is a problem. He said young people should not have to prove they were victims of abuse, and pointed to the difficulty of expecting a young person to obtain evidence of a breakdown in a parental relationship. Megan West, chief executive of Child Matters, said the changes limited options available to victims seeking to leave an environment.
Fiona Carter-Giddings, spokesperson for the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), said MSD will need evidence a parental support gap exists. She said that could be an official document or a supporting statement from a health, education, justice or social services professional. MSD said if made aware a client is in an abusive situation, it can offer specific services to help them into a safer situation. The Government outlined detail around its Budget announcement that people aged 18 and 19 will no longer be eligible for Jobseeker, according to a Beehive release from October last year. Later releases describe the policy as tightened eligibility criteria for Jobseeker Support and Emergency Benefit for 18- and 19-year-olds, to apply from November 2026. Work and Income has confirmed that timing. The parental income threshold is NZ$65,529. Analysis published in The Conversation put the payment for a single teenager living at home whose parents earn $1 under the threshold at $268.13 a week after tax. Minister Louise Upston has unveiled a package of benefit system reforms intended to shift more people off Jobseeker Support into employment. MSD documents describe Youth Package recipients as particularly vulnerable, lacking parental support or being young parents themselves. Its regulatory work lists Jobseeker Support, Sole Parent Support, Supported Living Payment, Emergency Benefit, Youth Payment and Young Parent Payment as the main benefits in scope for the wider welfare changes.
The broader context here is familiar to people who follow the Beehive and select committees. The Government wants fewer under-25s on long-term benefit, and has cited MSD modelling that people under age 25 on Jobseeker Support risk spending an average of 18 years on a benefit. Advocates accept the employment objective, and their argument is narrower and about proof. MSD will administer exemptions and alternative pathways and will judge whether the evidence is sufficient, which puts frontline discretion at the centre, like a gatekeeper test applied by case managers. Case managers will need to decide quickly whether a parental support gap exists, and whether disclosure of abuse triggers a referral rather than a decline. For 18- and 19-year-olds with no trusted GP, teacher or social worker, that first conversation will matter. For those with a trusted professional, the test may be procedural. For those without, it may be a barrier. The law takes effect on 2 November, a week after voter enrolments closed and a week before polling day. Voters aged 18 and 19 will live with the result, and some will not have been enrolled in time to vote on it.
