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Social Security Act 2018

Obligations - Beneficiaries’ obligations - Obligations of, and incentives for, young person who is spouse or partner of beneficiary

168: Young person aged 18 or 19 years, who is receiving jobseeker support as spouse or partner of person granted that benefit, or who is work-tested spouse or partner of specified beneficiary, and who is at significant risk of long-term welfare dependency

You could also call this:

“Young person might need extra help to avoid long-term benefit use”

This law is about young people aged 18 or 19 who don’t have children and are getting jobseeker support because their partner gets it, or they are the partner of someone getting a benefit and have to look for work. If the government thinks you might need benefits for a long time, they can make you get help called youth services.

Before making you get youth services, the government must talk to you about why they think you might need benefits for a long time and about their plan to give you youth services.

If you’re 19 when they tell you to get youth services, you have to keep getting them for 6 months, even if you turn 20. If you’re still in school or training when you turn 20, you might have to keep getting youth services until you finish.

When you get youth services, you have to do extra things like go to appointments and training. You can also get rewards for doing well. The government can check if you still need youth services and can stop them if you don’t need them anymore.

The government decides if you might need benefits for a long time by looking at things the Minister has chosen. This means they think you might not be able to get a full-time job for a long time and might need to rely on benefits to support yourself.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6783443.

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167: Young person aged 16 to 19 years who has dependent child and who is spouse or partner of specified beneficiary, or

“Help for young parents aged 16-19 who are with someone getting a benefit”

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169: Interpretation, or

“What certain words mean in this part of the law about young people, their partners, and benefits”

Part 3 Obligations
Beneficiaries’ obligations: Obligations of, and incentives for, young person who is spouse or partner of beneficiary

168Young person aged 18 or 19 years, who is receiving jobseeker support as spouse or partner of person granted that benefit, or who is work-tested spouse or partner of specified beneficiary, and who is at significant risk of long-term welfare dependency

  1. This section applies to a young person (P) aged 18 or 19 years without dependent children who—

  2. is receiving jobseeker support under sections 20 to 24 as the spouse or partner of the person granted the benefit; or
    1. is the work-tested spouse or partner of a specified beneficiary (other than a spouse or partner described in paragraph (a)).

      1. If MSD determines that P is at significant risk of long-term welfare dependency (as that risk is defined in subsection (8)), MSD may require P to receive services of a kind referred to in section 373(1)(a) (youth services).

      2. In exercising the discretion under subsection (2), MSD may consider factors that affect MSD’s ability to provide the young person with youth services (for example, funding and capacity to provide the services in the young person’s area).

      3. However, before requiring the young person to receive youth services, MSD must take reasonable steps to consult the young person about—

      4. the young person’s risk of long-term welfare dependency (as that risk is defined in subsection (8)); and
        1. the proposal to require the young person to receive youth services.

          1. A requirement under subsection (2) that is placed on a young person who is aged 19 years at the time the requirement is made continues—

          2. until the close of the day that is 6 months after the date on which the requirement was placed on the young person, even if the young person turns 20 during that 6-month period; or
            1. in the case of a young person who, on the day on which he or she turns 20, is continuing in a course of education, training, or work-based learning, until,—
              1. if the course is a course of secondary instruction or if the course ends in December, the close of the following 31 March:
                1. in any other case, the close of the day on which the course ends.

                2. The following apply to a young person who is required to receive youth services under subsection (2) as if the person’s jobseeker support, or the portion of the jobseeker support or the specified beneficiary’s benefit payable to the young person under section 337, were a youth payment:

                3. the obligations in section 162(1)(b) to (i) in addition to the young person’s work-test obligations or obligations under sections 124 and 125:
                  1. sections 55 and 289 as if the appropriate incentive payments were those set out in clauses 8 and 9 in subpart 3 of Part 6 of Schedule 4:
                    1. section 288:
                      1. sections 339, 340, 341, and 378:
                        1. regulations 4 and 5 and Part 2 of the Social Security (Criteria for Incentive Payments and Money Management) Regulations 2012 (as saved by clauses 12 and 41(3) of Schedule 1), or replacement regulations made under section 418(1)(c), (d), (l), and (m).

                          1. MSD may from time to time review a requirement placed on a young person under subsection (2) and may confirm or revoke it.

                          2. In this section, risk of long-term welfare dependency, in relation to a person, means the risk, determined using risk factors set by the Minister for the purposes of section 165 and this section by direction under section 7, that the person will, for an indefinite period, not be able to obtain full-time employment and will be likely to remain wholly or largely dependent for the person’s financial support on all or part of a main benefit under this Act.

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                          • 1964 No 136 s 171A