Source: Radio New Zealand
Out of work New Zealanders are having to rely on their partners as their welfare system. 123RF
Out of work New Zealanders who say they have worked hard and paid taxes all their life are forced to rely on their partners as their welfare system.
RNZ has been reporting on the “invisible unemployed”: people who have too much to qualify for a benefit, but not enough to make ends meet.
At the end of last year unemployment rose to its highest level in more than a decade, with more people chasing work than jobs created.
But not all of those people qualify for government support.
To be eligible for the Jobseeker benefit, your household could not earn more than a certain threshold: $1039 before tax for a couple without children, and $1088 before tax for a couple with children.
It meant if your partner earned more than $54,028 annually – or $56,576 if you had children – you could not get the Jobseeker benefit.
The median weekly income from wages and salaries is $1380, StatsNZ data showed – or $71,760 annually.
Ricky, whose partner earned more than the $1211 weekly threshold for him to receive the Supported Living Payment – a benefit for people with a health condition or disability – said the situation was “just sad”.
“The government essentially wipes their hands and say, your partner is your welfare system,” he said.
Ricky and his partner had always kept their money separate, he said.
“When I stopped working … we’ve both had to learn, and adjust that his money is now our money.
“But it’s still very awkward … I never ask for money for my personal expenses.”
On Friday the Minister for Social Development Louise Upston said the thresholds were a long-standing feature of the welfare system.
Minister for Social Development Louise Upston. RNZ / Mark Papalii
“Raising the threshold is not something I am looking at right now, my focus is on getting people off the jobseeker benefit and into work.”
RNZ asked further questions of Upston on Monday including what advice she had for people who could not get work, nor a benefit.
Her office said the minister had nothing further to add.
‘The numbers just don’t add up’
Covering the rent or mortgage payments was the biggest worry for people who contacted RNZ to share their stories.
There was an accommodation supplement available, but you did not qualify for that if you had more than $16,200 in the bank, for a couple.
StatsNZ data showed in the year ended June 2025, average weekly rent payments were $505.50 ($26,286 annually).
Average weekly mortgage payments were $690.90 ($17,272 annually).
For someone who was not working, and paying the average weekly rent with a partner who earned $1100 a week – above the Jobseeker benefit threshold – that left $594.50 a week, before tax, to cover both people’s costs.
An Auckland man, who RNZ agreed not to name, said once his savings were depleted in the next few weeks, he and his wife would struggle to pay the rent despite her earning well above the threshold.
He was made redundant “out of the blue” in October last year after 30 years in his industry but could not get the benefit because of his wife’s income.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I did just laugh because that $1040 [threshold], after tax … doesn’t even cover our rent,” he said.
“So how would we have been living … the numbers just don’t add up.”
The man said he did not know what the government expected him to do when his savings ran out.
“I just always assumed that if the worst came to the worst, and I’d expended all of my own … efforts, that there would be some way of getting help in New Zealand.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
