Income

Income is any money you or your partner get from any source, taxable or non-taxable. This could include, but is not limited to:

• wages
• salary
• termination payment
• bonus pay
• holiday pay
• maintenance payments
• paid parental leave
• interest from savings and investments
• dividends from shares
• income from a family trust, farm or business
• income from boarders or rent
• superannuation
• overseas benefits and pensions
• weekly accident insurance payments
• Accident compensation (ACC) payments to replace lost income
• child support
• some scholarships
• Medical Trainee Intern grant
• any indirect monetary benefits you get such as free board or shares in a business
• any other income that you have or may deprive yourself of.

If you get Temporary Additional Support, this also includes:

• Student Allowances
• the living costs component of the Student Loan
• Working for Families tax credits
• all Work and Income benefits except Unsupported Child Benefit and Orphans Benefit.

Getting a scholarship

If you get a scholarship, we'll count this as income for Student Allowance unless it's a:

• TeachNZ Scholarship (but not Career Changer Scholarship)
• New Zealand Scholarship (awarded by NZQA)
• Canterbury Earthquake Scholarship
• Tuli Takes Flight Scholarship.

Any amount of the scholarship that pays for your fees or course-related costs (eg, books, travel, laptop, etc) is not counted as income. The rest of the scholarship is counted as income. To work out your weekly income, divide the rest of the scholarship by the number of weeks that you get the scholarship for.

Getting Medical Trainee Intern Grant

If you get a Medical Trainee Intern Grant, we may count some or all of it as income. How much we count as income will depend if the grant is paid to you as a lump sum or monthly payment.

Lump sum payment

If it’s paid to you as a lump sum, we won’t count any amount that you use to pay for either your:

• course fees
• course costs that are over and above normal course costs, eg:
  • air fares
  • additional accommodation when on placement.

The rest of the grant will be divided into a weekly amount. This weekly amount will be counted as income for your Student Allowance.

If you’re unsure whether your course costs are over and above normal course costs, call us to discuss your situation.

Monthly payment

If it’s paid to you monthly, the entire payment will be counted as income.

The monthly total will be divided into a weekly amount and the weekly amount will be counted as income for your Student Allowance.