What you need to know about the Jobseeker eligibility changes

Explainer - Big changes to young peoples' eligibility for Jobseeker payments has dominated the news this week.

Here's what you need to know.

What's happening to Jobseeker?

The government announced on Sunday it was tightening the eligibility of 18- and 19-year-olds for Jobseeker, the weekly payment that helps people while they're looking for work.

So what is it going to do?

From November 2026, there will be a parental assistance test for Jobseeker benefits.

This will consist of a parental income test, demonstrating whether their parents earn income at or below the income limit, and/or a parental support gap test, where teens must demonstrate why they cannot reasonably be expected to rely on their parents for support.

That income limit will be $65,529 and it is expected to rise in annual adjustments to benefit payments.

So, parents earning more than $65,000 will now have to support their 18- and 19-year-old children while they look for work.

The average household income at the end of June 2024 was $134,599, according to Stats NZ.

"Going on welfare when you're young is a trap, with recent modelling suggesting that people under the age of 25 on Jobseeker support will spend an average of 18 or more years on a benefit over their lifetimes," Minister for Social Development and Employment Louise Upston said in making the announcement.

The government wants 50,000 fewer people on the Jobseeker Benefit by 2030, but Upston said "it's not the intention" of the policy to help meet that target.

The new changes were previously signalled in the May Budget but had been originally expected not to start until July 2027.

Who will this affect?

The government expected about 4300 young people would become ineligible for support and 4700 remain eligible in the 2027/28 financial year.

As of June this year, Upston said 15,045 18-19-year-olds were on Jobseeker support.

Overall, 216,009 people were receiving Jobseeker support as of June, up 10 percent from a year ago. That figure includes both work ready and health condition or disability Jobseeker support.

Upston also announced that young people participating in the Ministry of Social Development's new Community Job Coaching service can apply for a $1000 bonus payment if they get a job and stay off the benefit for 12 months.

The government has stressed support will remain available for those that need it, including for young people from "very low-income" families.

Eighteen and 19-year-olds who had dependent children, or were estranged from their parents, could also still access support.

Applicants would have to demonstrate a severe breakdown from their parents, which would need to be verified by a doctor or counsellor.

What does the Prime Minister say about it?

Christopher Luxon is calling it "tough love," and said the government did not want to "send a message to young people" that they could "just drift into welfare and that's it".

"I make no apologies for it. If you want a job you go where the jobs are."

Using one industry as an example, Luxon said the orchard sector is hurting for workers, but those in the industry said that isn't actually the case at the moment.

What are others saying about it?

The new $65,529 cut-off lines up with the threshold for the Supported Living Payment for people who cannot work due to a health condition or disability, or who care for someone full-time.

Green Party social development spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said that was barely enough for a family to live on as it is right now.

"Christopher Luxon needs to get out more and realise that families earning $65,000 a year, they will be feeling the pinch."

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the government had failed to create more jobs and to reduce the number of people on the benefit.

"They failed on all of their targets, now they're just trying to find ways of manipulating the numbers to make it look not quite so horrific for them."

Hipkins said regardless of what people thought of the change, "the way they have done it is very very bad policy design".

"They're sending a message to a number of families that increasing the amount you work will leave you worse off financially. That's bad policy."

However, ACT Party leader David Seymour said many businesses could not find staff and were relying on migrants to fill jobs New Zealand teenagers could be doing.

"It's shameful that people from overseas are showing more willingness to work than too many young New Zealanders born here," he said.

Will teens with health conditions or disabilities be affected?

There's also been concern that hundreds of teenagers with a health condition or disability could be cut off, RNZ's Lillian Hanly reported.

The policy will apply to young beneficiaries with a health condition or disability who have had to stop work for a period of time or reduce their hours.

Upston defended including those with a health condition or disability under the new policy, saying they were affected by a "temporary condition".

"They will be able to work within a two year period," Upston said. "Our expectation is that they are in further education or training or a job or their parents support them."

What's the unemployment scene like at the moment?

The official unemployment rate as of the June quarter was 5.2 percent, with 158,000 people unemployed.

In the June 2025 quarter, the seasonally adjusted proportion of people aged 15 to 24 who were not in a job, education, or training was 12.9 percent.

RNZ's Susan Edmunds looked at the data earlier this week and found that there were more people unemployed than there are jobs out there.

A recruitment general manager told Checkpoint the job market was the worst she'd seen since 2005.

There has been plenty of reporting about how rough it is out there for the unemployed. Some people have been looking for jobs for more than a year or jobs where there were up to 1000 applicants.

A kaupapa Māori youth homelessness group has also warned benefit changes will increase whānau stress and push more rangatahi onto the streets.

Manaaki Rangatahi pou ārahi (chief executive) Bianca Johanson said rangatahi often heard nothing when trying to find work.

"They don't even get the courtesy of an email back. Most don't hear anything."

Professor Matthew Roskruge, from the Massey University school of economics, said it was an "incredibly difficult" time to be looking for a job.

"Especially where they don't have really specific experience or certification... the regions from what we have seen have been hit particularly hard."

Upston, however, said the job market was starting to improve.

In its Budget statements in May, Treasury forecast 240,000 additional jobs over the next four years.

"We recognise it can be challenging but we want more for our young people," Upston said.

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