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Reciprocal Canada : Contents

Sole Parent Support for widows and widowers

When a client from Canada meets the qualifications for the New Zealand Sole Parent Support as a widow or widower and the client's child or children were born in Canada, they may qualify under the agreement with Canada.

Under the agreement:

  • dependent children born in Canada can be accepted as being born in New Zealand provided that the child was born before the death of the person's last deceased spouse or civil union partner
  • Canadian creditable periods to be regarded as residence in New Zealand for a client to meet the period of residence criteria for Sole Parent Support as a widow or widower
  • in the case of widows, a child must have been conceived before the spouse or civil union partner's death
  • in the case of a widower the child was born before the death of the person's last spouse
  • Canadian creditable periods under the Canadian Pension Plan for the last deceased partner is regarded as a period during which that partner was ordinarily resident in New Zealand
  • a client can use their own or their partner's Canadian creditable periods as periods of New Zealand residence to meet the residence criteria
  • the client may also be entitled to a Canadian Pension, which may be directly deducted from the New Zealand Sole Parent Support

SWIFTT

When Sole Parent Support for widows and widowers is granted using the agreement with Canada you will need to add the reciprocal indicator by using the SDT1A screen in SWIFTT and entering 06 in the entitlement code field.

Care and protection concerns

If MSD believes any child has been, or is likely to be harmed (physically, emotionally or sexually), ill-treated, abused, neglected, deprived or MSD has concerns about the wellbeing of the child, the case must be referred to Oranga Tamariki.

For more information

Contact International Services or see:

Legislation

  • articles II and VI Social Welfare (Reciprocity with Canada) Order 1996
  • What is sole parent requirement section 30 Social Security Act 2018
  • Sole parent support: requirements section 29 Social Security Act 2018
  • Residential requirement section 16 Social Security Act 2018
  • Factors reducing benefits: entitlement to overseas pensions section 187-191 Social Security Act 2018
  • Factors affecting benefits regulations 118-136 Social Security Regulations 2018
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'Canadian creditable period' means a period of residence or contributions which can be used to acquire the right to a benefit under the legislation of Canada, and includes a period during which a disability pension is payable under the Canada Pension Plan.

Note that Canadian creditable periods accumulated under the Old Age Security Act which coincide with creditable periods accumulated under the Canadian Pension Plan shall only be taken into account ...

SWIFTT Details weekly benefit (1) Add screen.

The contact details for International Services are:

From New Zealand 0800 777 227 (free calling within New Zealand only)

From Australia 1800 150 479

From other countries +64 4 978 1180

Email international_services@msd.govt.nz

Postal

International Services
Ministry of Social Development
PO Box 27178
Wellington 6141
New Zealand

Fax 04 918 0159

Note when calling from overseas replace the '+' with the international direct dial prefix for the country you are in.

Oranga Tamariki-Ministry for Children is known as "Oranga Tamariki". It came into existence on 1 April 2017, and replaced what was known as "Child, Youth and Family" or CYF.

Its original name, from 1 April 2017 until 18 January 2018, was the "Ministry for Vulnerable Children, Oranga Tamariki".