People receiving main benefits in New Zealand

Working age: Working-age people are aged 18-64 years. This definition reflects the minimum age of eligibility for most main benefits and the age of qualification for New Zealand Superannuation.
In some cases, benefits may be received by individuals outside of 'working age' (i.e. 18-64 years). Examples of this include individuals being eligible for a benefit from a younger age, or people over 65 years receiving the Emergency Benefit due to residency issues impacting on their eligibility for superannuation.
Ethnicity: Ethnicity data is self-identified and multiple ethnicities may be chosen by an individual as fits their preference or self-concept. Multiple selected ethnicities are then prioritised into a hierarchy. The Māori ethnicity has the highest priority in this hierarchy, followed by Pacific peoples. NZ European has the lowest priority.
Continuous duration: The length of time the client has continuously been receiving any main benefit.
Other main benefits: Includes the remaining benefit categories such as Emergency Benefit and working-age Youth Payment/Young Parent Payment (YP/YPP).

This dataset excludes non-working age people who receive a benefit (eg. superannuation)

At URL provided, under Excel Tables, select 'Territorial Authorities (TA) data tables - June 2026'.

The Benefit Fact Sheets provide a high-level view of trends in social welfare receipt, including Jobseeker Support, Supported Living Payment, Sole Parent Support and other main benefits.