Stand-down period: the wait before Jobseeker Support starts

How long your stand-down is

Work and Income works out your average weekly income before tax over the last 26 weeks and the last 52 weeks, and uses whichever gives you the shorter stand-down. If you have a partner, it uses the income of whichever of you earned more. At or above these amounts, the stand-down is 2 weeks; below them, 1 week:

Each further child adds $80. The amounts follow the average ordinary-time weekly wage, which is updated every 3 months, so check the current table when you apply.

When there is no stand-down, or a longer wait

You do not have a stand-down if you move from one benefit to another, if your benefit was suspended and then resumes, or if it was cancelled because you found a job and you need it again within 26 weeks. NZ Super and the Veteran's Pension have none either.

A longer wait is a different thing. If you left your job without a good reason or were dismissed for misconduct, you may wait up to 13 weeks: a non-entitlement period, not a stand-down. And if you need help with urgent or unexpected costs during a stand-down, ask Work and Income, because it may be able to help.

Redundancy pay, holiday pay and when your job ended

Two different things can push your first payment back:

• Redundancy pay counts in your income over the 26 or 52 weeks, so it can turn a 1-week stand-down into 2 weeks. It does not change the date your job is treated as ending. The rules for redundancy pay have changed over time, so you can ask Work and Income to check it treated yours correctly.
• Holiday pay, pay in lieu of notice and pay in lieu of accumulated leave move the end date back. Work and Income divides the payment by your daily pay and adds that many weekdays to your last day of work. Your entitlement date, when the stand-down starts, is usually the day after that date.

Our page on final pay explains what those payments should include.

A worked example

Say you are single with no children, earning $80,000 a year: $1,538.46 a week, or $307.69 a day over five days. Your last day of work is Friday 2 October 2026, and your final pay includes 8 days of holiday pay ($2,461.54) and $12,000 of redundancy pay. You apply straight away, and your application is approved.

1. The end date. The 8 days of holiday pay are added from Monday 5 October, weekdays only, so your job is treated as ending on Wednesday 14 October. Your entitlement date is Thursday 15 October.
2. The length. On a steady salary, your pay and holiday pay over the 52 weeks to 14 October come to $80,000. With the redundancy pay, that is $92,000, or $1,769.23 a week. Over 26 weeks it is $52,000, or $2,000 a week. Both are over $1,620.68, so the stand-down is 2 weeks. Without the redundancy pay, $1,538.46 a week would have meant 1 week.
3. The first money. The stand-down runs from 15 to 28 October, so payments start from Thursday 29 October. Because they are paid in arrears, the first one arrives about a week after that.

That is almost five weeks from your last day at work to your first payment, which your final pay and savings have to cover. Our guide to job hunting on Jobseeker Support covers what comes next, and the first 30 days after losing your job covers the rest of that month.

In the money runway in Insights, you enter the date you expect your first payment. Until that date it takes your whole weekly outgoings from your savings; after it, only the gap the after-tax benefit leaves. The chart shades the stand-down weeks. The demo has a sample runway you can add a date to, with no account needed.

See how far your money stretches