Jobseeker Support when your partner works: the couple income test explained

Your partner's income counts as yours

Work and Income says whether you can get Jobseeker Support depends on your age, your ability to work, your residency, and your income, "including your partner's income". A couple is assessed together, so the question is not whether you have any income of your own, but what the household earns.

The rates from 1 April 2026, after tax at the M rate, are:

• Couple without children: $633.94 a week in total, or $316.97 each ($717.50 in total before tax).
• Couple with children: $669.40 a week in total, or $334.70 each.

Those are the most you can get. Your combined income before tax must be under $1,066 a week for a couple without children, or $1,117 for a couple with dependent children. Work and Income calls those figures the cut-out points: at or above them, you do not qualify. Over a year, $1,066 a week is about $55,400 before tax between the two of you.

Work and Income lists one more rate: a couple with children where one partner gets the benefit and the other does not qualify for one, such as someone who does not meet the residency rules. That rate is $334.70 a week, with the same $1,117 cut-out. If that is your situation, ask Work and Income how it applies to you.

How the deduction works, with three examples

Work and Income's deduction table for couples sets out the rule. You can jointly earn up to $160 a week before tax without it affecting your payment. Above that, each partner's benefit is reduced by 35 cents for every dollar of joint income over $160, so the couple loses 70 cents in every dollar. Wages count before tax; the benefit figures are after tax.

These examples are for a couple without children, at the 1 April 2026 rates.

• Your partner earns $400 a week. That is $240 over the $160. The table takes $84 off each benefit, $168 in all, leaving $465.94 a week for the two of you, or $232.97 each.
• Your partner works 40 hours on the adult minimum wage. At $23.95 an hour that is $958 a week, $798 over the $160. Each benefit drops by $279.30, $558.60 in all, leaving $75.34 a week for the couple. With children, the same wage leaves $110.80.
• Your partner earns $1,200 a week. That is over the $1,066 cut-out, so no Jobseeker Support is paid.

Most couples where one partner works full time on more than the minimum wage will find the payment small or nothing at all. If your partner's pay changes from week to week, so will your payment. And Work and Income says a payment that has been reduced to $0 stops after six weeks at $0.

To try your own numbers, our Jobseeker Support calculator uses the same rates and deduction tables. Choose a couple and enter your joint weekly earnings before tax.

What else to check when Jobseeker Support is small or nothing

The cut-out applies to Jobseeker Support itself. Other help has its own tests, so a "no" to the benefit is not a "no" to everything.

• Accommodation Supplement helps with rent, board or the cost of owning a home. It is not only for people on a benefit, although your partner's income and your savings count: the asset limit is $16,200 for a couple.
• Working for Families, if you have children. Inland Revenue pays the family tax credit to families not on a benefit, and the in-work tax credit is for families in paid work, so a working partner may bring it in. Work and Income helps with childcare costs through Childcare Subsidy and OSCAR.
• Transition to Work Grant, up to $1,500 in total in 52 weeks for the costs of finding or starting work, which you do not pay back. You do not have to be on a benefit, but couples face an income limit of $1,076.04 a week before tax and a cash asset limit of $2,351.46.

Work and Income's online "Check what you might get" tool runs through these with your household's figures.

Why registering can still matter, and what your partner takes on

Even if the benefit would be small, being known to Work and Income can help. Anyone with a MyMSD account can make a Jobseeker profile, which Work and Income uses to match people with jobs listed on MyMSD and may use to refer them to courses or training. Being registered as a job seeker is also one of the ways to qualify for the Transition to Work Grant without being on a benefit.

If you do get Jobseeker Support as a couple, your partner has obligations too, and Work and Income says your benefit could reduce or stop if they do not meet them. They must tell Work and Income immediately about changes such as new work, a change in income, a move or travel overseas. If they work less than 30 hours a week, they are expected to be available for other work, training or activities up to 30 hours in total, and to accept suitable full-time work if it comes up. A partner who is expected to look for full-time work must take reasonable steps to get a suitable job, go to interviews and activities Work and Income asks them to, and tell Work and Income how they are meeting their obligations as often as it reasonably requires.

Our guide to job hunting on Jobseeker Support explains what those obligations look like in practice and what counts as job search activity.

Redundancy pay and savings

Your own redundancy pay. Work and Income's staff manual, Map, says redundancy pay is counted in your income over the last 26 or 52 weeks, which sets whether your stand-down is one week or two. For a couple without children, it is two weeks once average weekly income reaches $1,700.68, and with a partner, the stand-down is based on whichever of you earned more. Holiday pay and pay in lieu of notice are different: payments start only once the weeks they cover have run out. Work and Income says the treatment of redundancy pay has changed over time, and you can ask it to check yours was handled correctly.

If your partner is made redundant while you are on a benefit, Map says the redundancy payment is not treated as income, but it can raise your cash assets, which matters for extra help, and the interest it earns is counted as income.

Savings. Work and Income's Jobseeker Support page lists age, ability to work, income and residency as what decides it, and savings are not on that list. They do count for the Accommodation Supplement, the Transition to Work Grant and hardship help, each with its own asset limit.

When the payment is small, savings and a partner's wage carry the household, so it helps to know how long they last. The demo includes the money runway: enter your savings, your weekly outgoings and your weekly income, whether that is a reduced Jobseeker Support payment or nothing yet, and it shows how many weeks your savings cover.

Plan the weeks ahead together