Parental Income Test

When a young person has 1 or more applicable parents, their parental income must be assessed to determine if they qualify for Jobseeker Support Student Hardship. If their parental income is equal to or less than the parental income limit, they meet the Parental Income Test and may qualify for Jobseeker Support Student Hardship.

The Parental Income Test is used when a young person has 1 or more applicable parents and is in 1 of the following situations:

• is applying for Jobseeker Support Student Hardship
• has a change in circumstances that means the Parental Assistance Test applies to them
• has a change in circumstances that means a new applicable parent needs to be assessed

Parental income is assessed over a period of up to 52 weeks before the young person's application or change in circumstances. Only income received by the parent during the period is included in the assessment. MSD chooses the period to assess income over based on what will provide the most accurate representation of the income the parent will get during the grant.

When a young person has 2 applicable parents, each parent's income is assessed separately. The income of each parent must be combined and compared against the parental income limit.

The Parental Income Test uses the definition of income that applies for benefit purposes. However, there are two differences:

• the gross amount of main benefit, New Zealand Superannuation or Veterans Pension must be included and
• any amount of Accommodation Benefit must be excluded

Note this is not the same as the definition of parental income for the Student Allowance parental income test.

The parental income limit is the per year cut-out point for Supported Living Payment paid to a married, civil union or de facto couple with children. This limit applies in every case; there are no other limits for different family circumstances.

The parental income limit for the Parental Income Test is lower than the parental income limit for Student Allowance. This means some young people may have got Student Allowance based on their parental income but will not meet the Parental Income Test to qualify for Jobseeker Support Student Hardship.