hardship assistance
a one-off payment to help young people pay an essential or emergency cost
what does hardship cover?
It covers costs for immediate and essential needs for things like:
- Food
- Whiteware
- Glasses
- Payment card balance transfers
- Support while waiting for a benefit decision
These needs are also categories in the ART ‘Hardship’ task, but there are lots of other things that can be considered essential needs.
A young person may be eligible for a food grant if they’ve had to use their food money to pay for something essential, and their only option is to go to a food bank.
Get the facts
- What has happened?
- What is different from the previous week?
- Was there an essential expense?
- When is their next benefit payment?
- What is the usual amount they spend on food?
- Is that amount reasonable based on their family size?
Does the young person qualify for a food grant?
If the young person is receiving their full and correct entitlement (as per the steps above) and they still need a food grant, check they haven’t already exceeded their maximum food grant limit for the past 26 weeks.
Limits for past 26 weeks
- $200 - Single with no dependent children
- $300 - Married, civil union or de facto couple with no dependent children
- $450 - Married, civil union or de facto couple, or sole parent with 1 or 2 dependent children
- $550 - Married, civil union or de facto couple, or sole parent with 3 or more dependent children
What to do if they've exceeded their food grant limit
In exceptional cirumstances, we can still grant assistance for food if the young person has exceeded their 26-week limit. To decide if you should recommend that the young person receives an amount over the limit, consider if they have:
- special or unusual costs
- special or unusual reasons for costs
- health issues for themselves or dependants
- a dependent child 12 months or younger
- the ability to improve their financial situation
- a risk to their basic necessities of life if they don’t receive a grant
- escaped or are escaping from an unsafe environment
- used their money wisely
- any other circumstances you consider relevant. (For example: if a preferred supplier’s minimum required amount exceeds their 6-week limit.)
See Exceptional circumstances (MAP)
Recommending a food grant over the limit
Make sure you explain clearly in the ART task why you’re making your recommendation so that YSSU know what you have based it on.
We have a preferred supplier arrangement with Fisher & Paykel for whiteware.
If the young person meets the qualifications, we can give them an Advance for a fridge, fridge-freezer, freezer and/or washing machine from the Fisher & Paykel range.
help to pay for repairs
Hardship assistance may also cover the cost of repairs if the young person’s whiteware has broken down – but first check if the applicance is still covered by the Fisher & Paykel 2-year warranty.
repeat applications for whiteware
Sometimes a young person’s circumstances mean that they no longer have the original whiteware, eg if they have left a violent relationship and had to leave their possessions.
If a young person applies again for the same item, it will need a higher level of approval.
See more about assistance for Fridges, freezers and washing machines.
We have preferred supplier arrangements with selected optometrists and opticians to supply glasses in some urban areas.
The young person has to purchase their glasses from a preferred supplier if they are in the same area. If they don’t have a preferred supplier in their area, they can choose to use a non-preferred supplier or travel to a preferred supplier at their own cost.
See the list of preferred suppliers by region (W&I)
What glasses assistance covers
Goods
- spectacle frames
- spectacle lenses
- ready-to-wear spectacles
- spectacle protection cases
- spectacle care products
Services
- eye examinations
- fittings for frames and lenses
- fitting lenses to frames supplied by the young person
- adjusting spectacle frames and lenses
Options if your young person has high clinical needs
If the glasses your young person requires are more than the standard contract price, they may be able to get hardship assistance for a higher amount.
If a young person has an essential need that they can't use their payment card to meet, they can apply to have their balance transferred. The balance will either be paid to a third party, such as a landlord, or back onto the payment card for use at a specific supplier.
The young person may be able to get hardship assistance if they are in the process of applying for YP or YPP or in the stand-down period, but they will have to pay it back.
If they have received their maximum entitlement during the stand-down, they may be able to get other assistance, eg food grants.
To get other assistance, they or a family member must be experiencing an emergency or be in extreme hardship.
They will still need to qualify for any hardship assistance they apply for.
See more about assistance options while waiting for a benefit decision (MAP).
find out the young person's hardship need
The first step is to determine what the young person's hardship need is.
For example:
- What has happened?
- What is different from the previous week?
- Have they had to pay for something essential and been left without money for other things?
- How much assistance do they need?
check if the young person is getting everything they’re entitled to
Before you apply for hardship assistance, it’s important to confirm that the young person is receiving their full and correct entitlement (FACE).
Request an update in ART if the young person’s details or circumstances have changed.
- Confirm the young person’s circumstances (eg family situation, ongoing costs, etc)
- Check their details against their existing supplementary assistance. For example, do they receive or qualify for:
- Accommodation Supplement
- Disability Allowance
- Temporary Additional Support
- GCAP/Childcare Subsidy/OSCAR
- Child Disability Allowance
- Family Tax Credit
- Advance Payment of Benefit
- Training Incentive Allowance
- Make sure their income and asset information is correct
- Consider how the young person’s repayments for existing Work and Income debt could be adjusted to lessen or remove the need for hardship assistance.
Note: It is also important to consider how other agencies could help, eg Inland Revenue, or whether the young person might need support from community agencies, such as Budget Advice.
qualifying criteria
A young person has to meet the qualifying criteria to get hardship assistance or a food grant - it's all listed in MAP. However, if they’re receiving Youth Payment or Young Parent Payment, they won’t have hardship obligations because they already have budgeting obligations and money management.
Note: Young people who are not on a benefit will need to make an appointment with Work and Income to apply for a Recoverable Assistance Payment (RAP).
For full details about hardship assistance and eligibility see:
if the application is declined
YSSU will provide reasons if they have to decline an application. They’ll also provide a Food Bank Letter for the young person. You will need to tell the young person why their application was declined.
special needs grants - sng
A Special Needs Grant is a payment that may be available to young people in specific circumstances to help pay for an emergency need when they have no other way of paying for it. A Special Needs Grant is generally for urgent non-recoverable financial assistance, meaning the young person may not have to pay it back. For example the young person has no money to pay for food.
For more information refer to MAP on the Work and Income website.
advance payment of benefit - adv
Advance Payment of Benefit is a recoverable payment to help young people meet an immediate need for something essential (for example appliances, furniture, bedding, accommodation or school related costs such as, books, school activity fees and school uniforms).
Generally, MSD will pay the supplier for the goods or services directly to their bank account. In these cases, the young person will need to provide quotes to demonstrate the least amount required to meet their immediate need.
For more information refer to MAP on our Work and Income website.
course participation assistance - cpa
Course Participation Assistance provides financial assistance towards the actual and reasonable costs for young people participating in a short-term employment related training course or programme. These courses or programmes are generally less than 12 weeks long.
The objective of Course Participation Assistance is to help young people take part in training and work related skills development by providing financial assistance to help with the extra costs incurred through participation in the course or programme.
For more information refer to MAP on the Work and Income website.
training incentive allowance - tia
YPP (sole parents only) may be eligible for Training Incentive Allowance (TIA) where they are enrolled in an approved employment related training course that is:
- 12 weeks or more in duration and
- provided by a secondary school or tertiary institution as defined in the Education Act 1989 and
- attracts Student Component Funding or other approved Government funding
TIA will help identify educational goals, education options and anything else a young person needs to improve and shape their future.
TIA supports studying up to level 7 on the New Zealand Qualifications Framework course.
For more information refer to MAP on the Work and Income website.
transition to work grant - ttw
Transition to Work Grant is a payment that can be made to help meet the additional costs of entering into employment.
There are maximum amounts payable depending on the type of employment transition costs that the young person is facing.
Job Search
This assistance is used to help young people meet the essential, actual and reasonable costs of seeking paid employment and participating in a job interview. Clothing, childcare and transport are some examples of costs covered.
Job Placement
This assistance covers the essential, actual and reasonable costs required to start paid work. Examples of costs covered are, clothing and footwear, relocation and transport.
Bridging Finance
Young people entering full-time employment can apply for bridging finance to cover their essential living expenses (such as board/rent, power). Bridging finance covers the period between the young person's last benefit payment and their first payment of wages/salary, or their last payment of salary/wages and their first payment of salary/wages in their new job, up to a maximum of four weeks.
For up to date rates on a Transition to Work Grant refer to MAP on the Work and Income website.
Search/Placement
When a young person tells you they are looking for or starting work you need to submit either an income task/employment details task or a start/stop payments task together with a TTW task under hardship assistance.
When discussing TTW costs you should cover:
- What is the best option to meet their need?
- Whether or not the costs are essential for them to look for, participate in a job interview and/or to start work.
- is the employer responsible for providing the items (for example safety equipment and uniforms).
This will confirm:
- Why they are applying for TTW (they have a job interview/or starting working).
- What they need the assistance for (clothing, removing tattoos, transport, Bridging Finance).
- The amount of financial assistance.
Note: You will continue to send the note through to YSSU as a task using your current business process.
dress for success
The Dress for Success programme aims to help women find economic independence and supports women joining or returning to the workforce through to sustainable employment. The costs relating to Dress for Success can be met using Transition to Work (TTW).
What is Dress for Success
Dress for Success is a worldwide organisation and has been operating in New Zealand since 1999. Their mission is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and life.
The organisation received financial contributions from a number of Work and Income regions between 2004 and 2008, paid directly to the affiliate in that region. These payments did not fund individuals, but provided a contribution to that specific Dress for Success affiliate.
MSD and Dress for Success have now developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that focuses on promoting Dress for Success to women seeking employment that align with Dress for Success sites located in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Northland, Waikato, Rotorua and New Plymouth.
Dress for Success can provide this service within a 160km radius of their physical address. Young people who live outside the radius are able to access the service, so long as they are prepared to travel to the location.
What are the services that Dress for Success provide
Dress for Success support women seeking employment. They provide the following services by dressing each young person for their job and or training interview, or their first day at work, and provide:
- appropriate clothing
- accessories
- advice on presentation, hair and makeup
- interview tips and other helpful suggestions for interviews/workplace.
On gaining employment Dress for Success will provide the client with a second dressing and another complete outfit and they will be gifted a piece of jewellery.
For more information, refer to the Work and income website.