Working past 65 in New Zealand

NZ Super and a job, together

Work and Income puts it plainly: you can work while you get NZ Super, and it does not depend on your income or your assets. There is no limit on what you can earn. What your earnings can affect is any other payment you get from Work and Income, such as the Accommodation Supplement or Disability Allowance.

• Who qualifies: people aged 65 or over who are New Zealand citizens or residents, ordinarily resident here when they apply, and who have lived in New Zealand long enough since age 20, including 5 years from age 50. The years needed depend on your date of birth: 10 years if you were born on or before 30 June 1959, rising to 20 years for anyone born on or after 1 July 1977. Someone born in 1961 needs 11 or 12.
• Apply from 12 weeks before your 65th birthday, online through MyMSD. Apply before or on your birthday and you are paid from your birthday. Apply after it and you are paid from the day you apply.
• If your partner is under 65, only you are paid, at the rate for one person in a couple: $984.28 a fortnight before tax, not the single rate.

The tax code sets your take-home

NZ Super is taxable. Inland Revenue says you have one main income, your highest income source, and everything else is secondary. So if your job pays more than NZ Super, the job takes the main code, M, and NZ Super moves to a secondary code, chosen by your total income for the year: S up to $53,500, SH up to $78,100, ST up to $180,000 and SA above that.

Work and Income publishes what that does to each fortnightly payment. From 1 April 2026:

Nothing has gone wrong when the payment drops. Your job's pay now uses up the lower tax bands, so the tax on NZ Super is taken at the rate your total income reaches. Getting the code right matters more than the size of the drop:

• Tell Work and Income when your code changes, using its online Change of tax code form, and give your employer an IR330 for the job.
• A code that is too low shows up after 31 March as a bill; one that is too high means Inland Revenue held your money all year.
• ME is not for you. The independent earner tax credit is not available to anyone getting NZ Super.
• If no code fits, for example because your hours change through the year, Inland Revenue can give you a tailored tax code.
• If NZ Super is the bigger income, say you work a few hours a week, it keeps M and the job takes the secondary code instead.
• When you stop working, tell Work and Income straight away, so NZ Super goes back to M and you are paid the right amount.

KiwiSaver after 65

• You can withdraw all your savings at 65, the KiwiSaver age of eligibility, by contacting your provider. You do not have to.
• You can keep contributing from your pay. Inland Revenue says your employer may stop contributing, depending on your contract, so read your agreement, and raise it if you are negotiating a new one.
• You can stop your deductions at any time after 65 with a non-deduction notice (KS51) to your employer, which also stops the employer contributions. A KiwiSaver deduction form (KS2) starts them again.
• The government contribution stops at 65.

If an offer quotes a total remuneration package, ask what happens to the KiwiSaver part of it once you are over 65. The KiwiSaver guide has more on the choices when you move between jobs.

Your rights at work after 65

• No one can retire you because of your age. Employment New Zealand says there is no set age for retirement, and an employer cannot force an employee to retire except in specific circumstances, such as medical retirement, some agreements made before 1 April 1992, and jobs with a retirement age set in law, such as judges and coroners.
• Age discrimination is unlawful, in hiring and at work, under the Human Rights Act 1993. An employer cannot refuse to employ you, or offer you worse terms, because of your age.
• Every other right carries on: leave, sick leave, the right to ask for flexible work, and a fair process in a restructure. Redundancy in New Zealand covers what that process has to look like.
• Retiring is resigning. You give the notice your employment agreement asks for, like anyone leaving a job.

If you think you are being pushed out because of your age, write down what was said and when, and talk to Employment New Zealand on 0800 20 90 20 or to the Human Rights Commission.

Easing out: phased retirement

Employment New Zealand describes phased retirement as a way to ease into retirement and pass on your skills, while your employer gets time to prepare. It is something you agree, and the law gives you a way to start the conversation.

• Put it in writing as a flexible working request. Any employee can ask to change their hours, days or place of work, and the employer has one month to answer and can only refuse on set grounds. Asking to work flexibly in NZ has what the request must say.
• Think in steps: four days, then three; a handover role; a fixed-term project; mentoring the person who will take over.
• Check the tax at each step. As your hours fall, so does your total income, and NZ Super's secondary code may drop a band, from SH to S, which puts more of each payment in your pocket. Update the code when it happens.
• Write down what you agree, with the date and who agreed it. A plan that runs over two or three years outlasts managers.

Job hunting after 65

• Your CV: describe your recent roles in detail and summarise earlier ones in a line each. New Zealand CVs carry no photo and no date of birth. The CV guide has the other conventions.
• Show you are current: recent courses, the systems you use now, and what you have done in the last few years. Professional development and CPD covers how to record it.
• Questions about your age are generally off limits unless they are relevant to the job. You can redirect: "nothing in my situation affects my ability to do this role."
• Look where everyone looks, Seek, LinkedIn, ZEIL and careers pages, and ask your own network, which after a long career is often the strongest route in. Part-time, fixed-term and seasonal roles are listed there too.
• Work out what a job adds, after tax. jobtracker.co.nz shows the take-home pay on every job you save, worked out as your main income. If NZ Super will be the bigger of the two, the job goes on a secondary code instead and adds less than that figure.