Income

FamilyBoost is a childcare payment to help households pay for the cost of early childhood education (ECE). It's administered by Inland Revenue.

If you get a FamilyBoost payment from Inland Revenue, it is not counted as income.

However you have to tell us if you:

• keep the money you get (or part of it) for 12 months or more - this will be counted as a cash asset, or
• get interest from the payment - the interest will be counted as income.

If you're applying for a one-off hardship payment (e.g. food), we'll consider FamilyBoost payments as part of your available resources.

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.

A severe weather event payment is money you get to help you repair or rebuild your home, or replace damaged items. It could be paid to you through:

• insurance payments
• home and or land buyouts
• donations
• Kaupapa Māori pathway grants

These payments have an income and cash asset exemption, which means it won't affect any payments you get from us. This only applies to specific severe weather events, and it only lasts for 12 months.

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.

Medical Trainee Intern Grant lump sum

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
  • extra accommodation if you're away on placement but still need to pay for your main accommodation.

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.

Medical Trainee Intern Grant 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.