Starting a job when you are on a benefit: the Transition to Work Grant and your last payment

What the grant pays for

Work and Income describes the grant as help with the reasonable costs of finding work or starting a new job. Its examples are:

• clothing and transport for a job interview;
• interpreter fees;
• tools or clothing for work;
• relocating for work;
• living expenses between your last benefit payment and your first pay, such as board or rent, food and power;
• tattoo removal;
• childcare when you go to a job interview or first start work.

The limit is $1,500 in total for all of these in a 52-week period, and it does not have to be paid back. Work and Income's staff manual, Map, splits the grant into job-seeking costs, job-placement costs and bridging finance, the help with living costs before your first pay, which is for no more than four weeks. All three come out of the same $1,500.

The grant is separate from help with ongoing childcare. Work and Income says it may also be able to help with childcare costs for up to 50 hours a week once you are working, depending on your circumstances.

Who can get it

You must be 18 or older, looking for paid work of 30 hours or more a week (20 hours or more if you are a sole parent), a New Zealand citizen or resident, and looking for or starting a job in New Zealand. You must also be in one of these situations:

• getting a main benefit, such as Jobseeker Support or Sole Parent Support;
• registered with Work and Income as a job seeker;
• registered with Student Job Search, if you get Job Seeker Student Hardship;
• qualifying for a main benefit and holding an interview or a job offer; or
• with a short gap between jobs.

So being on a benefit is not the only way in. Sixteen and 17 year olds can apply in narrower situations, such as getting a Youth Payment or being in extreme hardship.

Work and Income also looks at how much you and your partner earn, the cash assets you both have, and whether you have had the grant in the last 52 weeks. Map's tables at 1 April 2026 set the grant's income limits at $740.81 a week before tax for a single person aged 18 or over, $1,076.04 for a couple, and $898.96 or $947.09 for a sole parent with one child or more than one. The cash asset limits are low: $1,411.22 for a single person and $2,351.46 for a couple or sole parent. Our guide to job hunting on Jobseeker Support covers the benefit itself and what Work and Income asks of you while you are on it.

Ask before you spend

The grant is decided case by case, so talk to Work and Income before you buy the suit or book the flight. To apply, call 0800 559 009. Work and Income says it will talk through your situation and tell you what information it needs and how to get it to them, and you may need to fill in the Transition to Work Grant applicant form.

The form shows what to have ready:

• Proof of who you are, and depending on your answers, proof of your income, your assets and your accommodation costs.
• Your costs, with quotes or receipts for each item.
• The interview, if you have one: the employer's name and contact details.
• The job, if you have one: the employer, hours a week, pay rate, start date and date of first pay. You may need to show proof of the job.
• Bridging finance, if you want it: the dates and amounts of living costs until your first pay.

Two more questions are worth knowing about. If you are repaying a debt to the Ministry of Social Development, the form lets you ask to stop the repayments for three months. And it asks what you are doing to search for work, noting that you may need to provide proof of your job search activities. The demo shows what that proof can look like: a Work and Income record built from the applications, interviews and follow-ups you log, by date, employer and outcome, ready to print or save as a PDF.

Your start date, your last payment and your first pay

Work and Income asks you to get in touch before you start a new job, on 0800 559 009, so it can sort out your payments and check whether anything else can help. Tell them your start date, your hours and your pay.

Full-time work. Map says someone who starts full-time employment cannot get Jobseeker Support, and the benefit is generally suspended or cancelled from the date the job starts. If the job is likely to last less than eight weeks, it is generally suspended rather than cancelled, so it can be resumed when the work ends. And if your benefit is cancelled because you found a job and you need to go back on a benefit within 26 weeks, there is no stand-down.

Part-time work. Getting a job does not always mean your payments stop. You may keep a reduced benefit, and you declare your income by 6pm on the Friday of the week you earn it, not the week you are paid.

The last payment. Weekly benefits are paid in arrears, for the week that has just been, so your last payment comes a week after the date your benefit stops. If it stops part-way through a week, that last payment covers only the days before it stops and is smaller than usual.

The first pay. This is the date that matters for your budget. Ask your new employer when your first pay day is, and whether it is weekly or fortnightly, because the weeks between your last benefit payment and your first wages are exactly what bridging finance is for. The form asks for the date, so have it before you call. Our guide to returning to work after a break covers the rest of the move back into work, from explaining a gap on your CV to childcare costs, flexible work and pacing yourself.

What carries on after you start

Leaving a benefit does not mean leaving all help behind. Map says that when someone starts full-time work, they may qualify for extra help as a non-beneficiary.

• Accommodation Supplement. It helps with rent, board or the cost of owning a home, and it is not only for people on a benefit. If you already get it, Map says you do not need a new application, but your rate is reviewed.
• Family tax credit and Best Start tax credit. If Work and Income pays these with your benefit, Map says they can continue for up to eight weeks after the benefit stops, at the same rate. After that, Inland Revenue pays the family tax credit to families not getting a benefit.
• In-work tax credit. Work and Income describes this as an entitlement from Inland Revenue for people in paid work with families. Apply through Inland Revenue.
• Childcare Subsidy. For a child under 5 at an approved early childhood service, normally up to 9 hours a week if you are not working, and up to 50 hours a week if you are working, studying or training.
• OSCAR Subsidy. For before and after school care, up to 20 hours a week, and school holiday programmes, up to 50 hours a week, for children under 14. Apply before your child's first day, or the subsidy will not cover the days before you applied.

One more payment is worth knowing about in the first months. If you stopped getting a benefit within the last six months, have a dependent child, and cannot work because you, your partner or your child is sick and you have no sick leave left, or your childcare has broken down and you have no paid leave left, the New Employment Transition Grant may help. Call Work and Income on 0800 559 009 for that, and for anything else in this article that depends on your own circumstances.

Keep the hunt, and the record, in one place