Social Security Act 2018

Enforcement: sanctions and offences - Sanctions for breach of obligations other than young person or young parent obligations - Hierarchy of sanctions

239: Continuation of sanction following regrant of specified benefit

You could also call this:

"Rules from your old benefit can still apply when you get a new one"

Illustration for Social Security Act 2018

If your specified benefit ends, and you get a new one, some rules might still apply to you. You can find out what a specified benefit is by looking at section 331. When your old benefit ended, it might have been because of something like a reduced payment rate, which is explained in section 236.

If you had money management or community work experience imposed on you, these rules are explained in section 236A and section 236B respectively. Your benefit might also have been suspended, which is explained in section 237. Then, if you get a new benefit, as described in section 336, the same rules will still apply to you.

These rules will apply to your new benefit in the same way they would have applied to your old benefit if it had not ended, as explained in section 332.

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This page was last updated on 19 July 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6783636.

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238: Sanction for third failure: cancellation of main benefit, or

"If you break the rules three times, your main benefit will stop for 13 weeks."

240: Failures that can be counted, or

"Understanding how the government keeps track of times you don't follow benefit rules"

Part 5Enforcement: sanctions and offences
Sanctions for breach of obligations other than young person or young parent obligations: Hierarchy of sanctions

239Continuation of sanction following regrant of specified benefit

This section applies to a person’s (P’s) specified benefit (as defined in section 331) if,—
when P’s specified benefit expires under section 332,—
1. the rate of P’s specified benefit is reduced under section 236; or
2. money management imposed on P has effect (see section 236A); or
3. community work experience imposed on P has effect (see section 236B); or
4. P’s specified benefit is suspended under section 237; and
P is regranted a specified benefit under section 336.

P’s regranted specified benefit under section 336 is subject to the relevant sanction specified in subsection (1)(a)(i), (ii), (iii), or (iv)—
on and after the commencement of that specified benefit; but
otherwise in the same way as that sanction would have continued to apply to P’s specified benefit had it not expired under section 332.

Notes

Section 239: replaced, on 26 May 2025, by section 21(1) of the Social Security Amendment Act 2025 (2025 No 25).