Client qualifies for and is getting the Special Needs Grant Family Violence Programme

The Family Violence Programme is part of the Special Needs Grants Welfare Programme and may be paid to clients on the grounds of hardship.

The payment enables a client, who is an ex-partner of a New Zealand citizen or resident, to get assistance from the Ministry of Social Development when the client intended to seek residence on the basis of their relationship. The relationship then ended because of domestic violence to themselves and/or their dependent children by their partner or another person that lives at the same address.

A client getting payment under this programme will qualify for social housing on residency grounds if they are ordinarily resident in New Zealand.

The residency status must be reconfirmed regularly while the client is on the Social Housing Register. This ensures that if a formal offer of housing is made by a social housing provider the client meets the residency criteria.

If it is identified the client is on the Social Housing Register and no longer qualifies for this Special Needs Grant, the client no longer qualifies for social housing. They will be removed from the register, unless they now meet another of the residency qualifications.