Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Got questions? RNZ has a podcast, Got questions? RNZ has a podcast, [www.rnz.co.nz/podcast/no-stupid-questions No Stupid Questions], with Susan Edmunds.

We’d love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but – even better – you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz

I have often wondered why the Reserve Bank’s primary weapon to combat inflation is mortgage rates.

Firstly, not everyone has a mortgage and, secondly, the well-off and the young are less likely to have mortgages. In general terms, would it not be better to increase KiwiSaver contributions in the short term, then relax them when inflation falls?

Making KiwiSaver compulsory would be necessary, but have a wider effect generally. Putting up mortgage rates simply recycles money back into the banking system.

During the latest increase/decrease cycle the banks’ profits rose significantly. A temporary KiwiSaver increase means people’s savings increase and the money is not simply lost in the current system.

This has been suggested a few times, including by former Revenue Minister David Parker, when he was Labour’s finance spokesperson, but so far, it’s never progressed any further.

I totally understand the reasoning. It would be great to think that my KiwiSaver balance was going up during times when we needed to get inflation under control, rather than that I was just paying more money to the bank in interest.

There are a few reasons why people don’t back the idea though.

One is that it would hit lower-income people hardest. Many are renting, so they are not currently affected by rising home loan interest rates.

Many of them aren’t contributing to KiwiSaver as it is. If we made it compulsory and increased the contribution rate, they could suffer.

People who owned a home with a mortgage would stand to gain the most.

There are also concerns that, if we ended up moving contributions according to what is needed for the economy, it could be harder to get them back to the level required to give people the optimum savings outcome.

Ideally, you want people to save an amount that gets them to the sort of lump sum they want to save in retirement – not the amount that inflation dictates.

Those are some of the arguments. I do think the idea has merit and it may be discussed again, if we move towards compulsion in the future.

I reached retirement age a few years back and stopped my KiwiSaver contributions, but continued to work and therefore my employer stopped their contributions.

I suggested that he should increase my wages by 3 percent, as the company no longer needed to pay contributions to my KiwiSaver. Years earlier, we did not get a wage rise, as the company’s 3 percent contribution was our wage increase, so I suggested it was only fair that the company increases my wage now by 3 percent, as I was no longer getting the contribution to my KiwiSaver.

Of course I did not get the 3 percent, which was my expected outcome. I thought this was just an interesting thing for you to note.

That’s right, at the moment, employers do not have to keep contributing to the accounts of people who are over 65.

It does seem unfair. Someone doing the same job can end up effectively paid less.

The government contribution also stops, but that makes more sense to me. If you are getting NZ Super, it is reasonable to not also receive the $261 a year from the government into KiwiSaver.

I would like to know how to make some modest inheritance money grow (not mine) and safely (again, as it’s not mine), even in government-guaranteed investments (if this is still a thing or how to tell).

Rather than get into the details as to whose money it is, I am a signatory to their NZ bank account. I have no clue about investing, but want to make their money grow, rather than let it sit there, and to make up for the occasional withdrawals, as it is moderately dwindling.

We try not to use the money in their savings account, but make occasional transfers to their everyday account, if they are short on funds. Additionally, what happens when they die?

Our lawyer created a will some time ago, but didn’t get back to me last year, when I emailed and asked them to remind me of the process when they die. I don’t have final say of their assets – that goes to my sisters.

The will was created by a major Wellington law firm.

If you have the money in a savings account at the moment, there are a few ways you could get a better return on it.

You could look at term deposits. They are very low risk, which it sounds like you are looking for.

You might consider a cash or conservative managed fund. You might get some balance movement in a conservative fund, but it should deliver better returns than a savings account over time.

You mention government guarantees. If you are looking for government-backed investments, you can buy Kiwi Bonds, which are basically lending money to the government.

At the moment, a Kiwi Bond with a one-year maturity pays 2.5 percent.

We also now have a Depositor Compensation Scheme, which gives you up to $100,000, if your money is in a savings account, transaction account or term deposit with an organisation like a bank or finance company that fails.

I would really recommend getting some advice on the best thing to do with the money though.

In terms of what happens when the person dies, Public Trust principal trustee Michelle Pope says the account will pass to any joint accountholders and won’t be part of the person’s estate.

If there is no joint accountholder and only authorised signatories, this ends when the account holder dies.

“The bank account then forms part of the deceased person’s estate and will be administered accordingly.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A financial advisor believes the New Zealand stock exchange will be less affected by the latest global market trends than Australia.

The Australian stock exchange was two percent down when it closed trading yesterday evening, with some of the worst hit industries being mining and tech companies.

It came after some fears globally about investment returns on artificial intelligence.

Radical Investment financial advisor Darcy Ungaro said New Zealand’s main exports were quite different to those across the ditch.

“Specifically, commodities like iron and coal and the financial and banking industry. Obviously, there’s more tech companies in the ASX then the NZX.”

Ungaro believed that Australia was likely more connected to the global economy through its products and financial markets.

“They are far more sensitive to changes like Donald Trump’s recent nomination for Fed Chair.”

He said the New Zealand stock exchange was fairly insulated at the moment.

Tech and business commentator Paul Spain said the New Zealand stock market will be less exposed to the global trends driving down stocks in Australia and the US, due to having fewer tech companies that are listed on the local stock exchange.

However, he said New Zealanders with investments in NZ companies listed overseas, such as Xero and Rocketlab, or those with investments in international tech stocks, will still feel the hit.

Spain said the global trends may trigger people to sell off or exit from certain KiwiSaver plans; however, he said conventional wisdom would advise to hang in for the long haul.

“Sometimes we see these stocks that will have a drop, people will be fearful and maybe exit a KiwiSaver scheme and may well get burned if those stocks then end up bouncing back,” he said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Unemployment has hit its highest level in a decade, but beneath the headline numbers some sectors are faring much better than others.

Stats NZ said this week the unemployment rate hit 5.4 percent in the three months to December, the highest since March 2015.

A total of 165,000 people were unemployed, a rise of 4000 on the previous quarter and 10,000 on a year ago. More people reported being available for work in the quarter.

Brad Olsen, chief executive at Infometrics, said while the number of full-time roles was down 0.9 percent year-on-year, the number of part-time positions had increased 2.1 percent, or 11,400 jobs.

“Accommodation and food services has seen the largest increase in jobs over the last year, up just over 25,000, with around 17,000 more full time and 8000 more part-time roles,” he said.

He said retail, health and information, media and telecommunications also had strong part-time growth in employment.

“For retail, there were 400 fewer roles overall, with 4100 fewer full time roles but 3700 more part-time roles, as retailers look to right-size their workforce for still mixed spending patterns. Health roles are up 7000 jobs overall over the last year, but this is made up of around 3000 fewer full-time roles but nearly 10,000 more part-time roles as the health sector manages budgets.”

In manufacturing, there were 7000 fewer manufacturing roles in December compared to a year earlier, driven by a drop of 7300 full-time positions offset a little by a 200 lift in part-time roles.

He said across the economy as a whole, a quarter of all roles were part-time.

“The increase in part-time work does seem to be a bit around businesses who are needing more capacity but aren’t willing or able to commit to full-time work immediately. That’s probably a bit of a sign of the slight tentativeness in the economy. You’ve had surveys recently which have suggested businesses are more upbeat about the general economy and have stronger expectations that they will both invest and hire more and there’s evidence of that but I think everyone’s just a bit shy at the start.”

He said there was a turnaround in tourism that was helping employment in that sector. “It’s now in a good space above 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels. There does seem to be more consistency in accommodation and food services because you’ve had lifts in both full-time and part-time work.

“Accommodation and food services is one of the industries with a much stronger focus on part-time work anyway but that increase in employment seems fairly broad-based. I do wonder if there’s an element of Kiwis seem to be spending a bit more on food and food-related items compared to straight-up retail options. You’ve seen retail employment actually fall a touch.”

He said people seemed to be spending on groceries and going out to eat a bit more but not as much on physical items.

The biggest declines in job numbers were in manufacturing, construction and some transport activity.

“Construction has seen declines across the board. You’ve got a nearly 11 percent decline over the last year in part-time construction work, an 8.2 percent decrease in full-time construction work, and that leaves an overall 8.4 percent decline.

“There’s just less to do than what there was a couple of years ago, and so the construction workforce has had to right-size a bit more.”

Some industries were facing longer-lasting change than others, he said.

“For construction, I’d find it hard to believe at the moment that construction would make it back to its peak level of employment, just because construction activity levels are likely to remain below peak.

“So if you needed so many workers to do all the work back in 2022-23 when it was really difficult to find builders, if you don’t have quite as much activity, you probably won’t see that high level of construction employment again, not necessarily in the short term at least.

“A lot of those other industries, I’d certainly be expecting as we sort of go through the year a bit more of a transition from that part-time focus to more of a full-time focus. But that will, I guess, for a lot of businesses, again, who are thinking that they’re a bit shy about hiring, they will be wanting to see sort of more stronger levels of sales and activity coming through before they commit to that permanent employment.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Consumers were a shade more willing to spend at the start of the year, although stormy weather put a dampener on things in some parts of the country, according to payments firm Worldline.

Spending at core retail merchants rose by 0.6 percent in January compared with a year ago, with a continued mixed showing between regions and cities, and between the North and South Islands.

Worldline NZ’s chief sales officer, Bruce Proffit, said the modest but positive start to the new year for consumer spending would be welcomed by retailers after the tough past year.

“The annual growth rate seen in January 2026 compared to 2025 was not high but was at least a positive start to the year – but we also noted a sharp fall in spending on Thursday 21 January, the day of storms and heavy rainfall that had tragic impacts in some areas.”

Retail spending across the Worldline NZ network slumped by 5.6 percent that day.

Annual spending growth was highest in Whanganui (+2.5 percent), Hawke’s Bay (+1.9 percent) and Palmerston North (+1.9 percent), and lowest in the Bay of Plenty (-3.4 percent), Taranaki (-3.0 percent) and Gisborne (-1.0 percent).

“The net effect of the storms over the month resulted in Bay of Plenty and Gisborne being amongst the weakest regions in the country in terms of the annual change in spending,” Proffit said.

The negative effect on spending continued over the following Auckland Anniversary long weekend, including at hospitality outlets.

Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young remained cautious, saying the latest rise in unemployment to 5.4 percent, pointed to some time before consumers would stop focusing on just getting by.

“Retailers have been experiencing tough trading conditions for some time now, and while business confidence is largely positive overall, it is clear it could be some time before New Zealanders feel confident enough in the economic conditions to increase their discretionary spending.

“Many retailers will be feeling as though they are just treading water as the economy moves sideways, rather than forwards,” she said.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Consumer NZ says New Zealand is facing a “really serious” situation with insurance becoming increasingly unaffordable and potentially inaccessible – and a new review needs to urgently tackle the problem.

It was revealed this week that the Council of Financial Regulators has been asked to conduct a review of insurance affordability for households, and the Commerce Commission has been asked for an initial market assessment.

Plans to introduce new levies as part of the Natural Hazards Insurance Act have been paused until the review can happen.

It comes amid reports that AA Insurance has pulled back from offering home policies in some South Island towns.

In a cabinet paper recommending the review, Treasury said home insurance premiums had grown at three times the rate of the consumer price index since 2011, and there had been a 40 percent rise in the past two years.

“Premiums have grown even faster for some people in high-risk areas. Insurance remains largely available, but access is becoming more difficult in areas facing both high earthquake and flood risk. With improved scientific understanding of seismic and climate risk, further increases are expected, and coverage may soon become unavailable for some people at any price.”

The first stage of the insurance review is expected to take six months and will be followed by a second phase, of policy development.

Treasury said there was some evidence that insurers had higher profit margins in New Zealand compared to Australia.

“New Zealand’s higher risk profile is likely a contributing factor, with investors demanding higher returns for the higher risk. However, it could also indicate weaker competitive pressures in New Zealand.”

Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy said he would be surprised if the Commerce Commission did not conclude that there were the same issues in insurance as were seen in the banking sector and the supermarket sector. “And others they’ve done market studies on that are problematic from a competition perspective.”

He said it was likely that a broader market study would be justified. A market study would allow more rigourous economic analysis of the profitability of insurance businesses as well as the factors that might make the market unique.

New Zealanders seemed to be getting a tough deal from insurers.

“Wellington is the most expensive place in the country to live. We live on multiple fault lines, we live close to the sea… increasingly it’s becoming too difficult for people, especially apartment dwellers in Wellington to afford what is the basic of living in a first world economy. You need to be able to insure your property. There are lots of factors that go into it but one of them appears to be that Australian-owned insurers – there’s really only two players in the market in home insurance, IAG and Suncorp – appear to be earning higher returns in New Zealand than they do in Australia.”

‘A prudential risk for banks’

He said he hoped to see some urgency from the government, and for it to accept it was an interlinked problem with climate adaption and the fundamentals of the market.

“The banking sector needs to be made aware of this, because if suddenly insurance isn’t available on a whole lot of properties that have mortgages over them, and that means those mortgage holders could be in breach of their mortgage terms and conditions, what happens where those mortgage-holders default? Or there is a natural disaster, and suddenly all of those mortgages can’t be called in.

“That’s a prudential risk for the banks, especially in an economy like New Zealand, where it has been a housing market with a small economy tacked on. This is really serious stuff, and I guess that’s why the Treasury’s kind of woken up and gone, actually, we’d better do something here.”

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said it was not surprising that premiums had increased.

“Does anyone remember Cyclone Gabrielle a couple of years ago? Those increases are very much being driven in many regards by reinsurance costs and the risk factors New Zealand has.”

He said the rate of annual inflation in dwelling insurance peaked at 25 percent in the March 2024 quarter, and contents insurance lifted by 28 percent in the same year.

“Before then, there was a bit of a burst in dwelling insurance that peaked at 18 percent back in 2018.

“We noted as well, though, last year, the level of rising challenges that you’re facing out there in the environment, the number of states of emergency continuing to lift… we’ve seen a 237 percent increase in the number of days that parts of New Zealand spent under a state of emergency in the last 12 years compared to the previous 12.

“So there’s a much more sustained level of pressure that’s putting pressure on the insurers who need to be able to pay for all these claims.”

He said in 2006, total insurance costs were 1.7 percent of overall household spending.

That increased to 3.16 percent in 2020.

He said there had also been a shift towards dwelling insurance and away from other types such as life insurance.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Tax accountants say interactions with Inland Revenue (IR) are improving but inconsistencies, inflexibility and inexperienced staff continue to be a frustration.

Chartered Accountants (CAANZ) and Tax Management’s (TMNZ) 2025 IR satisfaction survey indicates 82 percent of its tax agents who responded to the survey had clients with unpaid tax debt, though about 75 percent believed they would be able to make their tax payments.

Still, members gave IR’s handling of debt recovery a rating of 5.8 out of 10, which matched last year’s result, though there was a high degree of satisfaction when it came to online digital services.

TMNZ’s strategic advisor Chris Cunniffe said most of the issues with IR arose from one-on-one interactions, as the department stepped up efforts to recover $9.3 billion in unpaid tax.

“They are unsurprisingly throwing a lot of resource at it, which then means there’s a lot of interaction with tax agents,” Cunniffe said.

Debt management issues

Many tax agents said they did not understand IR’s current debt strategy, with inconsistent case handling, delayed follow-ups and misplaced enforcement focus.

The survey found there was a strong perception that outcomes often depended on which IR staff member managed the case, creating uncertainty and inefficiency.

Many respondents believed IR was intervening too late to collect debts, with debts already escalated to unmanageable levels.

Respondents were also concerned that small debts were chased aggressively while larger debts attracted less attention.

Recurring concern with audit and review activity

About 40 percent of tax agents said they were concerned about the standard of IR’s reviews or audits of clients, as inexperienced auditors lacked practical commercial understanding or the confidence to manage reviews effectively.

“Members experienced variation in how similar issues were handled across Inland Revenue teams, and many highlighted the impact of inexperienced staff.

“A further concern was Inland Revenue’s declining ability to understand the issue being raised, despite improved responsiveness. These gaps continue to affect predictability and the quality of the overall experience.”

Members were also concerned by IR’s increased attention on GST, PAYE, land transactions, and emerging activity in crypto-related matters.

“While satisfaction with final outcomes was generally moderate, the process often felt uneven,” the survey indicated.

Working to resolve issues

Cunniffe said CAANZ and TMNZ were working with IR to resolve the issues raised by the survey.

“What we’re looking for here is a collaborative approach . . . and look to get alignment on how tax agents and Inland Revenue can work to address this debt mountain that we face,” he said.

“We don’t see any point in just throwing stones at the Inland Revenue and saying, you’re not good enough.”

IR deputy commissioner Lisa Barrett said IR’s approach had been effective, with more than $4b in debt repaid.

“We’re pleased that accountants have noticed our increased efforts in audit and debt collection and are working with us and their clients to resolve any issues,” she said.

“Any time an organisation rapidly increases activity there are areas to improve, and we’re grateful for CAANZ feedback and their positive attitude to working through those with us.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

There is likely to be another six months of little house price movement, property data firm Cotality says.

It has released its latest data, which shows property values fell 0.1 percent in January.

The median value was $802,617, 1 percent lower than a year earlier and 17.5 percent below the early 2022 peak.

Standalone houses fell 0.7 percent over the 12 months to January. Townhouses were down 1.7 percent and apartments 4.1 percent.

Auckland values were down 0.3 percent in January and 1 percent over three months, and Wellington’s were down 0.1 percent and 0.5 percent over three months. Hamilton and Christchurch were flat while Tauranga values lifted 0.3 percent and Dunedin’s 0.4 percent. Queenstown prices lifted 0.8 percent in the month and 1 percent over three months.

Chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said it was a continuation of the flat activity seen through last year.

“At the moment buyers still seem to be in the ascendancy and values are flatlining,” Davidson said.

“New borrowers and also existing mortgage holders will be feeling the benefits of lower interest rates and be more able to act in the market.

“But there’s still a good stock of listings out there for buyers to choose from and a cautious attitude persists, especially as the recovering economy has yet to improve job security and employment levels.

“The net result is that buyers aren’t in a rush to bid up prices, although vendors aren’t generally having to drop their expectations much either.”

He said it would be interesting to see what housing market policies were presented by politicians heading into the election and what that might mean for buyers and sellers.

Davidson said recent talk about the potential for earlier official cash rate increases might have made some households nervous, but weak unemployment data on Wednesday may have changed the picture again.

“For a while there it was a growing view that we’d see OCR increases sooner rather than later but maybe that view’s being back-pedalled a bit off the back of the labour market numbers.

“I think the tone of the commentary is just shifting a bit towards there’s no rush and the OCR increases might not be coming through straight away, so that probably gives some reassurance to the housing market. But at the same time, there’s other possible restraints in the form of debt-to-income ratio limits and housing supply has increased.

He said it was likely that house prices would rise slowly this year.

“It’s not hard ot image things trending sidewards a bit further.

“Sentiment still seems to be fairly cautious… Some of these forces are pushing against each other at the moment. I think probably what it really takes is that economic recovery to get a bit more strength and really start to push the unemployment rate down. That might not be a consideration until maybe the second half of the year.

“It could be a year of two halves in some ways for house prices – the first half of the year is trending sideways.”

He said first-home buyers might not remain such a high share of activity, but were likely to be a strong force this year.

“Meanwhile, investors have also returned to the market but will be keeping a close eye on the politics, particularly around a possible capital gains tax and any discussions about interest deductibility.

“All in all, it could prove to be another relatively subdued year for housing in 2026.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Property flippers are back, at a rate not seen since before the global financial crisis.

A recent case in which an Auckland re-seller was ordered to pay $1 million to a couple he left out of pocket highlighted the perils of the practice.

Robert and Margaret Smallridge took their case against Paljeet Singh to the High Court in Auckland, where Justice Tracey Walker ruled in their favour.

The couple sold their Avondale home to Singh at the peak of the property market, in November 2021, for $1.925 million.

He intended to sell it on before the settlement date, but the market dropped. The couple eventually resold the property to another buyer for significantly less.

Singh was told to pay more than $750,000 in damages as well as contractual interest at 14 percent from 23 November, 2022 to the resale on 14 April, 2023, to a total of $99,604.48. He also had to pay a contractual interest on the net loss on resale at $268.01 per day from 15 April 2023 until it was paid.

Nick Goodall, head of research at property data firm Cotality, said the number of contemporaneous sales – where a property is sold to one person and then on to another at the same time – had lifted significantly last year after a sharp fall in 2023.

“There was a lift in these types of transactions last year, almost double 2024, and even more than what we saw through the Covid boom times.

“Perhaps this reflects the position of some vendors being more inclined to shift a property – given the decline of the market and weakness of the broader economy – rather than being able to hold on for a better price. Though this activity is still less prevalent than in the lead up to the Global Financial Crisis.”

The peak of this activity, according to Cotality’s data, was in 2007, but last year was the busiest year for it since then.

“It probably also speaks to the fact we’ve seen more activity at that lower end, which I suspect is going to be where more of the flipping activity happens as well,” Goodall said.

“When you look at the growth or lack of in prices that we’ve seen at the lower to middle end, where first-home buyers have been active, that hasn’t actually been as bad as perhaps the overall market has, which has been affected by the middle section of the market where the movers aren’t moving at the moment.”

He said people who made it work were selective in what they bought.

“You might find a property that’s been on the market for a while. It’s going to be experienced people and maybe they understand where a vendor might want a quicker sale in terms of moving on, but they can open up a different market to sell that on once they get to a certain state.”

He said it would happen less frequently when the market was soft, but there would still be buyers making it work on some properties.

But the Auckland case showed it did not always succeed.

“If the market’s not going so well, the economy’s not going so well, the buyers just aren’t there, they’re not seeing value on the property you’ve got, whatever it might be… It’s certainly not foolproof or faultless, but there’s probably always opportunities for this type of activity to continue,” Goodall said.

‘Lazy investors’

Property investment coach Steve Goodey said there were a number of “buyers’ advocates” in the market who would find properties that appeared to be a good deal and sell them on to investors with a small margin.

“I’ve done quite a few contemporaneous settlements in the last few months – four in December and two in January.

“There’s an investor market out there that doesn’t really know how cheap you can actually buy stuff at the moment, so if you’re a professional buyer and negotiator and can find equity, a discount or a high-yielding property, it’s not terribly hard to pass it on for a moderate fee.

“There are lots of lazy investors out there who don’t mind taking something off someone if the numbers make sense.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Lyttelton Port Company has delivered record earnings and profit in the first half of its financial year, thanks to strong growth in bulk imports and exports.

Total revenue was $108.5 million for the six months ending 31 December, an increase of 7.6 percent on the same period last year.

Operating earnings (EBITDA) rose 15.4 percent to $35.8 million, while net profit after tax increased 19.2 percent to $14.6 million.

Bulk cargo volumes rose 13 percent year-on-year in the first half.

LPC chief executive Graeme Sumner said the results were another step on the road towards a financially sustainable organisation.

“This growth demonstrates the ongoing resilience of our bulk operations and the important role the port continues to play in supporting Canterbury’s and the South Island economy,” he said.

“Our cost base remains carefully managed and aligned with the future needs of the organisation.”

Lyttelton Port Company is 100 percent owned by Christchurch City Holdings, the investment arm of the Christchurch City Council.

The port reported no significant health and safety events in the six months to the end of December.

Sumner acknowledged staff for their professionalism and commitment, saying their work continued to underpin the port’s safety and success.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A man who has cancer says he’s been so discouraged by what he’s discovered about early KiwiSaver withdrawals that he hasn’t even tried to get much-needed money out of his account – and wants the system to change.

The man, who wants only to be identified as Christopher because he has not told his teenage children about his prognosis, said he had been given about three years to live.

He was told in August that his cancer was stage four and terminal.

“At the time of discovery in August, the doctor said that based on what he saw, I only had a handful of months left. Fortunately, I have private health insurance and was therefore able to actually be seen and start treatment. If I hadn’t already had private health insurance, I’m sure I would have died before I was able to start treatment, if I’d been forced to rely strictly on the public health system.”

He said researching what was involved in a hardship application for KiwiSaver was “so discouraging” that it did not make sense to go through it and be rejected.

“I’ve got limited time and fighting with someone that’s holding my money and refusing to give it up is just one more stress I can’t afford.”

He pointed to a case that was dealt with by Financial Services Complaints Ltd, in which a woman wanted to withdraw her money early.

She too had incurable cancer and was not expected to reach 65.

She applied on the basis of serious illness but was declined because the supervisor for the scheme said she did not meet the criteria because she was expected to live at least another 12 months.

She argued it was unfair because she was not going to need the money for retirement. She said it was also unfair to say she was able to work because she was sacrificing time with her family to do so.

FSCL said the decision to decline her application was reasonable given that she did not face an imminent risk of death, which was determined as likely to happen in the next six to 12 months.

Christopher said he had lost his job as a public servant and had eight months without work before he found a contract role that lasts until June.

“Different kinds of cancer have different effects. Pancreatic cancer for example, is extremely painful and quite brutal. I’ve got bowel/colon cancer so the immediate first-order effects are moderate in comparison. However, things like the side-effects of chemo, the fact that treatment is two days out of five working days … it’s a lot for an employer to be willing to deal with. Those two days are strictly for the treatment/chemo infusion. The next day … it’s hard to even get out of bed. For me, that’s every other week.

“And that’s not even going into the various side effects of the medication, like puking, hyper-sensitivity to cold, brain fog and so forth.

“Even when I move, I’m super slow compared to a few months ago … Future contracts mean I have to disclose my diagnosis and hope that doesn’t mean I lose the contract to someone that doesn’t have cancer.”

He said living in Wellington with a mortgage and two kids meant that he had to work.

“I’ve got two or three years where I’ll be able to essentially function but … living ain’t easy. And dying is surprisingly hard too it seems. Instead of being able to spend time with the family, I’m either working or sleeping.”

He said the system should change.

“In theory, it’s my money. The government is apparently confident enough in my ability to manage it and get good returns, that they’ve cut the amount they’re willing to match.

“And yet trying to actually do something with it, people are treated as if they’re applying for a loan and have to justify it to the bank/service provider. I understand that there need to be rules to prevent people withdrawing it willy-nilly but when you’re talking about someone literally dying … I think it’s a bit ridiculous.

“I don’t deserve to actually enjoy the couple of remaining years of good life that I have and instead have to wait until I’m knocking on the hospice door, before they’ll reluctantly agree that they guess they can release my money? It feels like the banks/service providers consider it to be their money and it’s massively inconvenient for them when we need access to it. With the amount of profits the banking sector has turned in over the last few years, it’s kind of hard to swallow that these rules are in place just for my own good.”

David Callanan, general manager of corporate trustee services at Public Trust, said he was sorry to hear about Christopher’s situation. He said while he could not speak about a specific case, in general people could apply to withdraw money under significant hardship or serious illness criteria.

“Under a serious illness application, people may meet criteria for ‘imminent risk of death’ as stated by law, allowing a full withdrawal of their KiwiSaver investment. The Financial Services Council’s guidelines interpret this as the person being diagnosed with a terminal illness with 18 months or less to live.

“However, supervisors and providers are encouraged to take a commonsense approach and the supervisor assesses each application individually.

“As part of the withdrawal application, the person will need a doctor or nurse practitioner to complete a declaration form confirming their illness. This form asks the medical practitioner to give a detailed description of their patient’s condition and attach any supporting evidence.

“Under a serious illness withdrawal application, a person may meet criteria to withdraw if they are totally and permanently unable to work due to their illness. This could allow them to access a full or partial withdrawal, or one-off costs.

“A person can also apply to withdraw on significant financial hardship grounds. In most cases, this could allow them to access an amount equivalent to up to 13 weeks of living expenses, including any one-off costs. We encourage people to speak to their KiwiSaver provider in the first instance to discuss early withdrawal options.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand