Housing support changes
13 March 2023.
Changes have been made to housing products to help more people with housing costs.
In 2022 Ministers announced extra funding to improve the housing support Work and Income offer. This will help low and middle-income households to get into and stay in rental properties.
Work and Income's housing support payments include:
- Bond Grant - to help pay bond
- Rent in Advance Grant - to help pay rent in advance
- Rent Arrears Grant - to help pay rent you owe
- Moving Costs Grant - to help pay moving costs
- Tenancy Costs Cover - an offer to landlords as an assurance that we can cover outstanding costs at the end of a tenancy if they're not covered by bond, and
- Transition to Alternative Housing Grant - for people who choose to move out of public housing into a private rental property.
What's changing
The changes are designed to better support more people, and include:
- eligibility criteria updated so more people can get these payments.
- maximum amounts increasing to ensure they better reflect actual housing costs.
- number of times you can get these payments in a year has increased.