Social obligations

Clients getting Emergency Maintenance Allowance have social obligations that apply for each dependent child in their care. This includes a child for whom Orphans Benefit or Unsupported Childs Benefit is being paid.

A client must take all reasonable steps to meet all of the social obligations that apply for each child. The social obligations that apply for each child depend on the age of the child.

When required, clients need to take all reasonable steps to meet the following social obligations. The child must be:

• enrolled with a registered medical practitioner, nurse practitioner or with a medical practice that is part of a Primary Health Organisation and
• up-to-date with their core Well Child/Tamariki Ora checks (for children aged under 5 years old) and
• enrolled in and attending 1 of the following from the age of 3 years until they start school:
  • an approved early childhood education programme or
  • Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu - The Correspondence School or
  • another approved parenting and early childhood home education programme
• enrolled in and attending school from the age of 5 or 6 years old (depending on when they start school)

When required a client must:

• attend and participate in interviews with MSD to discuss meeting their social obligations and
• advise on progress where they have not been able to meet their social obligations

A client is only required to meet social obligations from the time they begin to get a benefit.

Clients in the process of applying for Emergency Maintenance Allowance or who have a future commencement date of their Emergency Maintenance Allowance are not required to meet their social obligations. Clients are also not required to meet social obligations that would have been relevant to them before getting a benefit.

For example, a client who starts getting a benefit when their child is between 3 and 4 months old, cannot be sanctioned for not having completed the core Well Child/Tamariki Ora checks, a child should have had at ages 4 to 6 weeks.