Temping and casual work while you look for a permanent job

How temping affects Jobseeker Support and abatement

Earning money while on Jobseeker Support is allowed, and often encouraged, but it reduces the payment. For a single person with no children, Work and Income's deduction table says that once you earn over $160 a week before tax, your payment reduces by 70 cents for every extra dollar. Sole parents and couples have different rules, set out in their own tables.

So if you are single and earn $400 before tax in a week of temping, the $240 over $160 reduces your payment by 70 cents in the dollar, which is $168. You are still better off working, and each week of work is recent experience on your CV.

You declare income for the week you earn it, by Friday 6pm that week, not the week you are paid. If your hours are the same every week, you only need to tell Work and Income once; if they vary, as temp work often does, you declare each week, usually through MyMSD. Our guide to job hunting on Jobseeker Support covers your obligations and how to keep a record of your search.

Casual, fixed term and temp: the differences

The three words are often used loosely, but they mean different things:

• Casual work has no guaranteed hours and no expectation of ongoing work. You are offered work as it comes up, and you can turn it down. Where it is impracticable to give four weeks of annual holidays, as it often is with casual work, holiday pay of at least 8% can be added to each pay instead, if your employment agreement says so.
• A fixed-term job ends on a set date or when a set event happens, such as a project finishing or a staff member returning from parental leave. The employer needs a genuine reason for the fixed term, and it has to be in writing.
• Temping usually means work placed through a recruitment agency, where the agency is often your employer and the business you work at is its client. Your agreement should make clear who employs you.

For each, check who pays you, how holiday pay is handled, and how much notice either side has to give. Our article on fixed-term versus permanent jobs covers the fixed-term rules in more detail.

Tax codes when you have more than one source of pay

Inland Revenue's rule is simple: if you receive a main benefit from Work and Income, the benefit uses the M tax code, and any other salary or wages use a secondary tax code. Give each temp employer or agency a tax code declaration (IR330) with the right secondary code.

The secondary code depends on your expected total income for the year from all sources: SB up to $15,600, S from $15,601 to $53,500, SH from $53,501 to $78,100, ST from $78,101 to $180,000, and SA above that. If a secondary code would take too much tax from a small amount of temp pay, you can apply to Inland Revenue for a tailored tax code. Using the wrong code usually means a bill or a refund at the end of the tax year, and an employer with no IR330 from you must deduct tax at 45%.

Turning a temp role into an interview

A temp placement is a working interview in both directions. You see the team and the work from the inside, and the manager sees how you work, which no CV can show. When a permanent role comes up in the team, a good temp who is already there is an easy person to consider.

If you would like to stay, say so, politely and at the right time: "I've really enjoyed working here. If a permanent role comes up in the team, I'd like to be considered." Ask the agency whether the placement can become permanent, and whether a fee applies, because some agency agreements charge the client if it hires you directly. Our guide to working with recruitment agencies explains how those arrangements usually work.

Keeping the permanent hunt running alongside

The risk with temp work is that it absorbs the time and energy the search needs, and a month becomes six. Set aside fixed times for the hunt each week, such as two evenings and a weekend morning, and keep them even on busy weeks.

Keep interviews possible, too. Tell the agency early if you have one coming up, and prefer placements that leave some flexibility. Log each application, follow-up and interview as it happens, so a busy week of temping does not leave your search record, or your Work and Income record, with gaps.

The demo opens with no account and shows a job hunt run alongside Jobseeker Support: each application with its stage and dates, the follow-ups due, and a Work and Income record of the search activity, ready to print or download.

Run the temp work and the hunt side by side