The Guide to Social Development Policy

Child Support - assessable income

Map has been updated to reflect that from 8 October 2026, MSD doesn't need to send a notice of adverse action before using information share Child Support when assessing eligibility for Social Housing or calculating Income Related Rent. This is a change from the previous requirement to give 10-working days notice or an extended timeframe before using this information. See:

• Assessment of eligibility Child Support is assessable income from 1 July 2023
• Income Related Rent Child Support included as assessable income from 1 July 2023

Integrity Intervention Centre

The Integrity Intervention Centre page that was part of Current client debt has been removed, as have 3 other pages with processing information related to this.

Deskfile - 2027 calendar

The 2027 calendar, with the fortnightly paydays marked, has been added.

Mandatory Reviews for New Zealand benefits and pensions overseas

The following Mandatory Review changes are effective from 1 October 2026.

Mandatory Reviews replace the Review of Circumstances and Life Certificate Process for New Zealand benefits and pensions paid overseas.

A client will have a Mandatory Review every 52 weeks.

Mandatory reviews will apply to clients getting a New Zealand benefit under General Portability, Special Portability, or a reciprocal agreement (Reciprocal Australia and Reciprocal United Kingdom are not affected by this change).

Clients getting the following New Zealand benefits while overseas will have a Mandatory Review:

• New Zealand Superannuation
• Veteran's Pension
• Supported Living Payment
• Widow's Benefit
• Orphan's Benefit

The introduction of extensions, exemptions and exceptions: situations where a client can get more time to respond to their review, or when clients won't be required to respond to a Mandatory Review.

The suspension and cancellation of a client's benefit if they don't respond to the Mandatory Review before the review date.

Residence

The residence requirements have been updated to remove out-of-date or repetitive information for the following:

• General portability
• Special portability
• Reciprocal Australia
• Reciprocal Canada
• Reciprocal Denmark
• Reciprocal Hellenic Republic
• Reciprocal Ireland
• Reciprocal Jersey/Guernsey
• Reciprocal United Kingdom

These now retain only the residence rules that are particular or exceptional for that assistance.

For standard residence criteria that apply to most types of assistance see:

• Core policy Residence

Adverse Action Notification for reciprocal agreement countries

Reciprocal agreements enable MSD to obtain overseas pension information directly from partner agencies.

Clients receiving overseas pensions from some reciprocal agreement countries (Canada, Denmark, Greece, Jersey/Guernsey, Ireland and the United Kingdom) were not being issued a Notice of Information Matching in accordance with section 386 of the Social Security Act 2018. Work has since been completed to bring these countries into line with the other reciprocal agreement countries (Australia, the Netherlands, South Korea and Malta).

Map has been updated to confirm that a written notice of adverse action must be sent to the client at the first information match with the overseas agency of an agreement country.

Student allowance - Reassessment of parental income (RPI)

Map has been updated to confirm that only actual, verified reductions in parental income can be used for a reassessment of parental income for student allowances. See:

• Reassessment of parental income (RPI)