supplementary assistance
accommodation supplement, disability allowance, temporary additional support
Young people can use 'Check what you might get' tool to find out the ways we can help them and their family. To work out Family Tax Credits, they will need to visit the IR website.
accommodation supplement - as
Accommodation Supplement (AS) is paid weekly to young people based on their rent, board or home ownership costs. Young people can only claim one type of accommodation cost at a time.
Accommodation costs don’t usually need to be verified unless there are home ownership costs, or the stated rent and board costs are unusually high.
Note: Young people can't get AS if they:
- are paying rent to a property owned or managed by Kāinga Ora
- are paying rent for a community housing provider property that is contracted for Income Related Rent purposes
- are making mortgage payments to Kāinga Ora
- receive a residential care supplement such as Residential Care Subsidy, Residential Support Subsidy or Residential Care Loan.
Accommodation costs - rent, board and home ownership
Rent vs Board
It's important to distinguish between rent and board as it affects the rate of AS that young people can receive. Always ask a young person what their accommodation costs cover to confirm they’ve listed the correct type of cost.
Rent
When a young person is renting, we can only include their actual rent cost as their accommodation costs. The only exception to this is if a young person pays water rates as a requirement of their tenancy agreement. Service costs such as power and internet aren’t included as accommodation costs under rent.
For example: If a young person declares their costs as $250 rent per week and includes $50 worth of power and internet costs, we’d list the rent cost as $200.
Board
A young person's accommodation costs must include food to be considered board. If a young person lists their accommodation costs as rent but it includes food, classify it as board for AS.
Home ownership costs under Accommodation Supplement
The most common home ownership costs are mortgage repayments, house insurance premiums, and council rates.
Home ownership costs covered by Accommodation Supplement (AS) (Map).
Please note: We only include the minimum mortgage repayment amount in our calculations. This covers the actual costs of buying the house or carrying out essential repairs and maintenance.
If the supplied evidence doesn’t confirm the minimum repayment amounts, request further verification to confirm this.
Home ownership costs are assessed differently if a home owner rents out a room or part of the property they’re living in.
temporary additional support - tas
Temporary Additional Support is non-taxable extra help paid for a maximum of 13 weeks. It is paid as a last resort to help young people with their regular essential living costs that cannot be met from their chargeable income and other resources.
During the interview
Youth Coaches are required to have a conversation with the young person to ensure they meet the eligibility criteria for Temporary Additional Support.
This should include establishing reasonable and necessary steps that will support the young person to reduce their costs, increase their chargeable income or obtain financial assistance from other sources. E.g. If the young person has public transport travel costs, confirm if they may be eligible and if they will apply for the Community Connect concession or if they have recently added the concession to their transport card. Reasonable and necessary steps should be included in the TAS ART task.
Reapplication
A reminder letter is posted to the young person in week nine of receiving TAS, four weeks before their TAS is due to end.
The letter informs the young person of the:
- date they need to reapply
- channels they can use to reapply
- the essential costs that are used to calculate their payment
A reapplication form is also attached to the letter.
The young person will return the completed TAS reapplication for YSSU to action.
disability allowance - da
Disability Allowance is a weekly payment for young people who have regular, ongoing costs because of a disability. These could be visits to the doctor or hospital, medicines, extra clothing or travel.
For the young person to get a Disability Allowance, they need to:
- have a disability that is likely to last at least 6 months
- have regular, ongoing costs because of their disability that are not fully covered by another agency.
Types of costs that can be included
Applying for counselling or medical alarm costs
If the young person is applying for counselling or medical alarm costs, there are extra forms to complete:
- Counselling - the young person, their doctor and counsellor also need to complete a Disability Certificate - Counselling form
- Medical alarms - their doctor also needs to complete a Disability Allowance - Medical Alarm Assessment form
Their doctor should have these forms at their office.
child disability allowance - cda
Child Disability Allowance is a fortnightly payment made to the main carer of a child or young person with a serious disability. It is paid in recognition of the extra care and attention needed for that child.
The child needs to be assessed by their health practitioner as needing constant care and attention for
at least 12 months because of a serious disability.
Other assistance, such as the Disability Allowance, may be available to help with the costs of
treatment, medication or disability related expenses.
Young people can’t get this allowance if the young person already gets a benefit (except for the Orphan’s or
Unsupported Child’s Benefit), or if they get Board Payments for them from Oranga Tamariki.
For more information refer to MAP on the Work and Income website.