Accommodation Type

For Student Allowance, a parental home is a home where you live with a parent in a place they own or pay for. This doesn't include situations where:

• you're sharing accommodation, eg you're:
  • both on the tenancy agreement
  • paying board to live in a hostel or boarding house
• you live in a self contained place on your parent's property, eg a place with its own power meter, kitchen, shower and bathroom facilities
• you're supporting your parent, eg:
  • you're caring for them
  • you're paying for their accommodation.

For Accommodation Benefit, a parental home is also when you don't live with a parent but live in their house, unless:

• you or your partner have a child, or
• you pay market rent for the area you live in, or
• you pay the outgoings for the area you live in (eg, mortgage, rates, house insurance and essential repairs and maintenance) and the parent doesn't help you pay for these.

Public Housing means you're living in a house and paying rent to either:

• Kāinga Ora (used to be Housing New Zealand), or
• a Community Housing Provider.

Kāinga Ora is a government agency that provides affordable rental homes for people on low incomes or with special housing needs.

A registered Community Housing Provider provides social rental housing and/or affordable rental housing.

A hostel is accommodation at an education provider where you could share facilities, eg kitchen, bathroom, lounge and recreation room. Some universities subsidise hostel rates if you study there.

Renting is where you live in a house owned by someone else (not your parents) and pay them an agreed amount. This usually doesn't include expenses, eg, food, power or internet.

Board is where you live in a house owned by someone else (not your parents) and pay them an agreed amount that includes expenses, eg, food, power or internet.

This is when you live in a home that you own, or jointly own.