Job hunting on Jobseeker Support

What you actually have to do

The law (sections 144 and 146 of the Social Security Act 2018) says two things. You must be available for suitable work and take reasonable steps to get it, accept suitable offers, and attend interviews you are referred to. And you must report on how you are meeting those obligations as often as, and in the way that, Work and Income reasonably requires.

Notice what that does not say. There is no universal quota of applications, and no automatic weekly form for everyone on the benefit. What it means in practice is that you can be asked at any appointment to show what you have been doing. Some people also have an employment plan in MyMSD, with specific activities and due dates agreed with a case manager. If you have one, those agreed activities are your requirements, and they are the ones to keep evidence for.

There is one place a specific number appears. If you fail an obligation, Work and Income can impose Report Job Search instead of cutting your payment: at least three recorded job-search activities a week, for four weeks, recorded in MyMSD by a set day each week, with evidence at an appointment at the end. It came in on 20 October 2025 and is used rarely (six times nationwide between May 2025 and January 2026). If it happens to you, that is the standard you have to meet, and missing it can reduce or stop your payment.

What Work and Income (WINZ) counts as an activity

• Submitting a job application, on any board or directly.
• Contacting an employer about work, by phone, email or in person.
• A job interview, phone screen or assessment.
• Registering with or meeting a recruitment agency.
• Attending a job fair, work-readiness workshop or training linked to employment.
• Preparing or updating your CV and cover letter for a specific role.
• Networking conversations genuinely aimed at finding work.

Record the date, what you did, and who it involved (company, agency, person). That level of detail is enough to answer any question a case manager will realistically ask.

Know your numbers while you're on it

• The single rate for 25 and over is $426.12 a week before tax (from April 2026), which is about $372.55 after tax. Budget on the after-tax figure: building a runway on the gross rate overstates it by roughly 14%, which is a month you do not actually have. Build your runway on the real number: your savings divided by the weekly shortfall (true weekly outgoings less your after-tax income) is the number of weeks you've got. There is a worked example in KiwiSaver and money between jobs.
• Declare casual and part-time income properly. Abatement reduces the benefit as you earn, but working part-time while hunting almost always leaves you ahead, and part-time roles convert to full-time offers surprisingly often.
• Stand-down periods matter. If you're heading onto the benefit, find out your stand-down early and plan the gap. It can be up to two weeks, and it starts only once any holiday pay or pay in lieu of notice has run out, so the first payment can be further away than that.

Make the record write itself

The efficient version of compliance is to track your job hunt properly for your own sake, and let the record fall out of it. If you're logging every application, call and interview in one place anyway (which is also how you win the actual hunt: see the complete playbook), then your Work and Income record is a formatted view of work you already did.

Look after the person doing the hunting

Hunting under financial pressure with reporting obligations on top is genuinely hard. The evidence on sustained job searches is consistent: people who track effort rather than outcomes, keep a weekly rhythm, and give themselves credit for the work (not just the wins) stay in the game longer and land sooner. Your Work and Income record is also proof you showed up every week, and it is worth keeping for yourself as well as for MSD.