Parental Assistance Test

To qualify for Jobseeker Support some young people must meet the Parental Assistance Test. This assesses whether the young person can reasonably be expected to rely on their parents for financial support. To meet the Parental Assistance Test they must:

• meet the Parental Income Test or
• have a Parental Support Gap with all their parents

A young person must meet the Parental Assistance Test if they:

• are not included as a dependent child in another person's benefit
• do not have dependent children
• do not get Foster Care Allowance for a child (and neither does their partner, if any) and
• are 18 or 19 years old if they are the primary client or
• are 16 to 19 years old if they are the partner

Note when 2 young people are in a relationship, the Parental Assistance Test applies to each person individually.

For the Parental Assistance Test, a dependent child of a young person is a child who:

• is or will be included in the young person's Jobseeker Support
• the young person or their partner gets Orphans Benefit or Unsupported Childs Benefit for 

A parent is a natural (birth), adoptive or step parent of a young person. A step parent is someone in a relationship with a young person's natural or adoptive parent. When a relationship between a natural or adoptive parent and a step parent ends, the step parent is no longer a parent of the young person.

A parent does not include a person acting in place of a parent such as a caregiver, guardian, relative (e.g. grandparent) or whāngai parent.

When a young person is transferring to Jobseeker Support from a different benefit, they must meet the Parental Assistance Test to qualify. This does not include moving from one type of Jobseeker Support to another e.g. moving to Jobseeker Support (health condition, injury or disability) because of a change in work capacity.

The only is exception is when the young person:

• is getting Jobseeker Support, Jobseeker Support Student Hardship or an equivalent Emergency Benefit and
• will be included in Jobseeker Support as a partner and
• has met the Parental Assistance Test in the last 26 weeks

In this situation, the young person does not need to meet the Parental Assistance Test again to be included.