Accommodation Supplement

You may get an Accommodation Supplement if you:

• have accommodation costs where you're living
• are either:
  • 18 or older
  • 16 or 17 and either:
    
    • working full-time, or
    • have had an Independent Circumstances Allowance approved before,
    • getting a benefit
• are a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident
• normally live in New Zealand and intend to stay here
• are not paying rent to live in a social housing property

It also depends on:

• how much you and your partner earn
• any money or assets you and your partner have.

Minimum accommodation costs

You also need to be paying a minimum amount of accommodation costs. How much you need to pay depends on your situation.

If you are:	You need to be paying more than:
	Rent	Home ownership costs (eg, mortgage, rates)
Single, 16+ years	$70	$84
Partner, no children	$113	$136
Partner, 1+ children	$149	$178
Sole parent	$130	$156

Paying board

If you pay board, your minimum accommodation cost is not based on your whole board cost. This is because board includes other costs, for example food and power.

We calculate 62% of your board to be your accommodation cost. For example, if your total board payment is $200 a week, we’ll calculate 62% of it, which will be $124 a week.

If you are:	62% of your total board payment needs to be more than:
Single, 16+ years	$70
Partner, no children	$113
Partner, 1+ children	$149
Sole parent	$130

Studying full-time

If you're studying full-time, you can't get an Accommodation Supplement if:

• you're currently getting Student Allowance
• you're not entitled to Student Allowance because of your:
  • income
  • partner's income
  • parents’ income
• you've chosen not to get Student Allowance.

You may be able to get an Accommodation Supplement if you're not entitled to Student Allowance for other reasons (eg, you're doing part-time study, or post-graduate study).

How much you will get on the Accommodation Supplement will depend on:

• your income
• your assets
• your accommodation costs
• your family circumstances
• where you live.

Depending on your situation and where you live, the most you can get is:

If you are:	and you live in:
	Area 1 limit	Area 2 limit	Area 3 limit	Area 4 limit
Single, 16+ years	$165	$105	$80	$70
Partner, no children	$235	$155	$105	$80
Partner, 1+ children	$305	$220	$160	$120
Sole parent, 1 child	$235	$155	$105	$80
Sole parent, 2+ children	$305	$220	$160	$120

Complete our Extra Help form to apply for Accommodation Supplement, Disability Allowance and Temporary Additional Support in one form.

If you're eligible, we can grant the Accommodation Supplement from the date you first contact us to ask for help, as long as you complete your application within 20 working days of that date.

If you’re already getting Accommodation Supplement and your costs change, you need to let us know. If you don't let us know, you may get a debt.