meeting youth activity obligations
how young people meet their youth activity obligations
what the youth activity obligations are
When young people apply to receive Youth Payment and (or are young partners) they have to agree to a set of Youth Activity Obligation. The Youth Activity Obligations cover a range of things that young people must do to continue receiving payments.
The Youth Activity Obligations
The obligations fall into three categories: education, budgeting and contact.
Education
Young people must:
- be enrolled in and undertaking, or be available for, a full-time course of secondary or tertiary education, or approved training or work-based learning leading to a NCEA level 2 qualification or an equivalent or higher qualification.
Budgeting
Young people must:
- participate in and complete an approved budgeting programme
- co-operate with their provider in managing the spending of their Payment
- attend and participate in regular discussions on budgeting at any discussion, or when asked, provide details of:
- accommodation costs and service costs such as power and phone
- lawful debts and liabilities
- how they spent any in-hand allowance and any money credited to their payment card or any other device.
Engagement
When required, young people must:
- report to their provider on progress in meeting their education and budgeting obligations
- attend and participate in any interview with their provider or Work and Income "in-house" service
- provide details of their accommodation costs, service costs and lawful debts or other liabilities to their provider (within 20 working days of the request).
Young people who fail without good and sufficient reason to comply with their activity obligations may be sanctioned.
young parent activities
In addition to the Youth Activity Obligations above, young parents and young parent partners are also subject to parenting Youth Activity Obligations.
Parenting
Young Parents must:
- enrol their child with a Primary Health Organisation, where a local provider is available
- keep their child or children under the age of 5 years up-to-date with their Well Child/Tamariki Ora checks
- ensure their child's attendance at an approved Early Childhood Education (ECE) programme or other suitable childcare, while they are participating in education, training, work-based learning or part-time work.
Education exemption for young parents
Young parents are not required to be in education, training or work-based learning if their youngest dependent child is aged less than 12 months, or six months if a suitable Teen Parent Unit is available.
All other obligations apply from the time the young parent starts receiving payments.
Please note: that if a child has a health condition the young parent may be eligible for an exemption for a period of time. For more information about when an exemption may apply, visit exemptions | youth service providers
young person does not meet their activity obligations
When a young person does not meet their activity obligations without a good and sufficient reason, you must inform YSSU that a failure has occurred.
For example, YSSU need to know when a young person does not attend a budgeting programme as they may be subject to an activity obligation failure.
For more information about activity obligation failures, visit activity obligation failures | youth service providers
prior learning for budgeting and parenting
Any budgeting and parenting programmes that the young person may have completed can be recognised as prior learning so long as they meet the Youth Service Budgeting or Parenting Programme guidelines.
Learn more