[Rorschach]

Not sure if this is the right place for this thread (or in 'money matters').

Anyway,...we're leaving the UK on 31st Dec and bringing our 1 & 3yr old boys with us.

I was wondering what child benefits there are in NZ, whether we'll be entitled to them (we have PR) and how we go about claiming them?

As we leave the UK we have to cancel our UK child benefit - so it would be good to know if we have something to help replace it.

Also I heard that there are some free nursery/childcare hours available. Anybody know anything about this?

Thanks for your help!

Luke.

[nativecolo]

H Rorschach

welcome!

Being from India I 'm not used to benefits etc, so I will defer to others on the forum....20hrs of pre-school is free per week. Its a simple process to call the preschool, but there could be a wait period based on availability.

Ciao
NC

[James 1077]

The only child benefit that I'm aware of in NZ is Working for Families tax credit (http://www.ird.govt.nz/wff-tax-credits/). Follow the link for more details.

It should be noted that if you claim working for families then you are not allowed to take advantage of the transitional resident tax break (no NZ tax on overseas passive income (ie rent, interest)).

It should also be noted that you may continue to claim Child Benefit in the UK for 6 months after you leave providing that you are not planning on leaving the UK for more than a year. In my view it is nearly impossible to be definitively committed to leaving the UK for more than a year when you are moving to the other side of the world - what if you don't like it! ;)

[Georgebulldog]

This may help with pre school/kindy it's only for 3 & 4 yr olds
http://www.teamup.co.nz/YoungChild/EducationAndChildcare/20HoursECE.aspx

You may find you will still get child benefit for a few months after being here, I got mine for 6 months as did a friend of mine & then it just stopped, I had a panic they would ask me to pay it back but it seems to be the norm

[L00pback]

Hi, we flew out at the end of May but our child benefit stopped in April. I rang a few weeks back now to query this and was told in no uncertain terms that it is not the case that child benefit continues for 6 months after leaving the UK. (I explained that we were visiting NZ for 6-9 months with the view to staying for good if everything worked out.)

It was stopped in April as Benefit is always paid in advance and although this still left us a couple of weeks short I was told that my case will be looked at eventually to see if we are owed any monies:wah

Suppose I am just trying to say that from my experience there doesn't seem to be a set system for receiving child benefit after leaving the UK.

Sorry if this has confused you more:exit

Emma

[L00pback]

About the 20 hours free childcare - I found this which might help:- http://www.homegrownkids.co.nz/Childcare+With+Us/20+Hours+ECE.html?gclid=COSE6ISxmp0CFRgbawodTG7-_A

(hope I've done that right, my IT expert is at work!)
I know it's for a specific organisation but it explains about the 20 hours ECE which should help

Due to a shortage of kindys and places, in some areas (such as Taupo where we are) kids don't start until around 3.5yrs. Also, sometimes the amount subsidised by the government doesn't cover the costs for the kindy so this has to be topped up by the parents/guardians.

We just went around all the kindys in our area and signed our 2 up (even our 1yr old).

Emma

[Georgebulldog]

Hi, we flew out at the end of May but our child benefit stopped in April. I rang a few weeks back now to query this and was told in no uncertain terms that it is not the case that child benefit continues for 6 months after leaving the UK. (I explained that we were visiting NZ for 6-9 months with the view to staying for good if everything worked out.)

It was stopped in April as Benefit is always paid in advance and although this still left us a couple of weeks short I was told that my case will be looked at eventually to see if we are owed any monies:wah

Suppose I am just trying to say that from my experience there doesn't seem to be a set system for receiving child benefit after leaving the UK.

Sorry if this has confused you more:exit

Emma

Is it the other one then? Can't remember the name of it now, I never got anything more than the bare minimum so what everyone would get but 1 of them kept going & got me a bit worried & the other stopped straight away

[Familyofmonkeys]

Also, sometimes the amount subsidised by the government doesn't cover the costs for the kindy so this has to be topped up by the parents/guardians.


Most places seem to charge about 50c per hour as a top us.

[peebles16]

No top ups here, certainly not when my wee man was in kindy - different story for pre-school but then he was in for more hours :)

Karenx

[James 1077]

Hi, we flew out at the end of May but our child benefit stopped in April. I rang a few weeks back now to query this and was told in no uncertain terms that it is not the case that child benefit continues for 6 months after leaving the UK. (I explained that we were visiting NZ for 6-9 months with the view to staying for good if everything worked out.)

It was stopped in April as Benefit is always paid in advance and although this still left us a couple of weeks short I was told that my case will be looked at eventually to see if we are owed any monies:wah

Suppose I am just trying to say that from my experience there doesn't seem to be a set system for receiving child benefit after leaving the UK.

Sorry if this has confused you more:exit

Emma

Most countries it will be stopped when you leave the UK for more than 8 weeks - but NZ has a benefits treaty with the UK that extends this time for 6 months but only for temporary moves (otherwise it stops on the Monday after you leave). It could be that the person advising you was either confused or unware of the extension!

[L00pback]

Thanks for the info James 1077, I have PM'd you.

Emma

[James 1077]

Thanks for the info James 1077, I have PM'd you.

Emma

They used to make it nice and easy for you to find it but have just wasted 30 minutes of my delayed lunch break thanks to a redesign of the Department of Work and Pension's website removing form SA8 that summarised the Social Welfare Convention!

However, I have managed to find the actual agreement on the NZ legislation website - just written in legalese! A PDF of the agreement is here (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1990/0085/latest/096be8ed8009f9c2.pdf); HTML is here (http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/1990/0085/latest/DLM137735.html).

The part you need to look at is Section 8 Article 14 - Family Allowance subsection (3). This says:




Where family allowance is payable to a person under the legislation of the United Kingdom and that allowance would continue to be payable if that person and the child in respect of whom it is payable were in the United Kingdom, that allowance shall continue to be payable for the first twenty six weeks of absence of the person and/or the child in New Zealand, provided that such absence is only temporary.



Family allowance is defined as:




family allowance

means, in relation to the United Kingdom, child benefit payable under the legislation of that Party and, in relation to New Zealand, it means family benefit payable under the legislation of New Zealand



Temporary absence is, helpfully, not defined in the convention! However Page 3 of the HMRC Child Benefit guide (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/childbenefit/ch5_notes.pdf)defines a temporary absence as:




Temporary absence


means an absence abroad that is unlikely to last more than a year when it begins.



So if you are moving to NZ, and it is unlikely to be for more than a year, then you can receive child benefit for the first 26 weeks (6 months) of absence under the social security convention.


This ability to claim therefore depends on how "unlikely" your return to the UK is going to be. Whilst you may have PR and the ability to live in New Zealand for longer is it "unlikely" that you will hate the place, not settle in, get homesick, miss your family etc? Is it "unlikely" that any of these will not cause you to go back to the UK? My personal opinion is that, when you leave for NZ, it is not unlikely that you will move back within a year as enough people have done it. If this is the case then you should be able to claim child benefit for 6 months!

[Rorschach]

Thanks for all your wise information.

I'll be upfront but probably indicate that it could be possible we return (although of course I hope not!) in order to try and see if they are happy to leave it for 6 months.

[Familyofmonkeys]

Bit late on this thread, but when we were in the same situation in 2007 the person on the end of the phone wasn't much help so we escalated our query to a supervisor and we were eventually told that if we were going to NZ on a temporary work visa, then you probably could keep claiming the child benefit for 6 months, but on a Permanent Residence visa (where by applying for this visa type your intention is to permanently reside in NZ, rather than work temporarily for a specified period of time) you most certainly could not and that they had the right to claim any overpayment back up to 7 years afterwards unless there was a mistake on their part.

It does seem that one person gets told one thing and someone else gets told something different :confused:

[James 1077]

Further to my post I've also now been sent the original form SA8 following a request to DWP.

Unfortunately it is too big to attach but if you PM me with your email address then I'll forward it on.

James