Contents
Community Costs : Contents

Qualifications

To qualify for Community Costs, a client must:

For more information see:

Clients must provide evidence of their income, assets (for example current payslips and bank statements) and essential ongoing costs if not already held. 

Legislation

  • Community Costs Programme
  • General limitation on receiving benefit: persons unlawfully resident or present in New Zealand and persons holding temporary entry class visa section 19 Social Security Act 2018
  • MSD may refuse or cancel benefit if person not ordinarily resident in New Zealand section 204 Social Security Act 2018
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A person can be a New Zealand citizen by either:

For New Zealand citizenship, New Zealand includes the self-governing states of:

Citizenship is granted by the Department of Internal Affairs.

Note people born in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, or Tokelau may not automatically be New Zealand citizens. To be considered a New Zealand citizen from birth, a person born on or after 1 January 2006 must have:

A residence class visa means a:

A residence class visa allows people to live in New Zealand indefinitely. The visa also lets people work and study in New Zealand. There are different travel conditions based on the type of residence class visa.

Residence class visas are granted by Immigration New Zealand.

For the purpose of deciding if a person meets the residence criteria for financial assistance from MSD, people who ...

Temporary entry class visas are issued to people who have arrived in New Zealand legally, but are only allowed to stay for a temporary period for the duration and purposes indicated on the visa.

A temporary entry class visa means:

Legislation