Kiwisaver withdrawals due to hardship have hit a record high

Brian from Mount Roskill

Cost-of-living pressures are driving record numbers of Kiwis to seek financial hardship relief through KiwiSaver, while there’s also been a rise in fraudulent attempts to access Kiwisaver money. New data from the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) shows a record $48.9 million was withdrawn in September for hardship reasons, and 5530 people dipped into their retirement fund - also a record high. In this year’s first financial quarter $134.6m has been withdrawn from KiwiSaver for hardship reasons, up 22.5% on the same period last year.
Money woes: At the Public Trust, a Kiwisaver supervisor in charge of approving hardship withdrawals, up to 50% of current cases are for repeat withdrawals, spokesman David Callanan said. Typically applications happened when someone’s employment circumstances changed or they had a setback, he said. “But now we’re also just seeing people who found themselves in arrears with bills. They’re unable to pay off their credit card, they’ve just run out of that rainy-day savings account. For many, KiwiSaver is the last accessible pool of funds when you’re in a crisis.” The trust was also seeing fraud on a daily basis - where people were faking documents to prove hardship.
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