Working for Families overview

Working for Families payments help you with the costs of raising your family.

You may qualify for Working for Families if you’re the principal caregiver of a dependent child on a permanent basis.

In some cases, you can still be the principal caregiver even if you share the care of your child with someone else.

You do not need to be the child’s parent.

Find out if you could get for Working for Families payments.

Working for families eligibility tool

Either MSD (Work and Income) or Inland Revenue can pay Working for Families payments.

4 types of payments

There are 4 types of Working for Families payments, and you may qualify for all of these or only some of them.

All types you qualify for are combined into a single payment and paid directly into your bank account.

You can choose to get your payments weekly, fortnightly, or in a lump sum at the end of the tax year (March 31).

Types of payment

Payments are based on your family income

When we work out your Working for Families payments, we take into account your family income. That is, your income and your partner’s income are added together. Income earned by your children is generally not included as family income.

Your family income may be more than just your taxable income.

Working out your family income

Square-up for weekly and fortnightly payments

If you’re paid weekly or fortnightly, your payments will be based on your family situation and estimates of your family income for the tax year (1 April to 31 March).

At the end of the tax year (31 March), we’ll work out your actual Working for Families entitlement when we know your actual family income.

If you did not collect your full entitlement during the year, we’ll pay you the rest as a refund into your bank account after the end of the tax year.

If you were paid too much during the year, you’ll need to repay the overpayment to us by the due date.

Yearly review and assessment processes

No square-up for lump sum payments

If you prefer to wait and get your Working for Families as a lump sum at the end of the tax year, we’ll work out your entitlement based on your family situation and your actual family income for the year.

No estimations of your family income are required so there’s no risk of an overpayment you’ll need to repay to us.

However, if your lump sum payment was based on incorrect information, you may have a payment to make later on.

How much will you get?

If you’re eligible for Working for Families, we’ll work out your entitlement for you.

But if you’d like a quick estimate of your entitlement, check out our calculator or chart.

Estimate your entitlement

Warning for new or returning residents

Do you have a temporary tax exemption (transitional residency) applying to income you’re getting from overseas?

You cannot have both Working for Families and a temporary tax exemption.

If you apply for Working for Families, you’ll lose your exemption. And if you have a partner, they’ll lose their exemption too.

Even if you do not have an exemption yourself and you apply for Working for Families, your partner will lose their exemption.

New or returning residents

Applying for Working for Families

You can apply for Working for Families in myIR. There are other ways to apply and you can find them on the different 'Apply' pages.

Apply for Working for Families

Important notice ─ tell us if anything changes

If you choose to get your Working for Families payments weekly or fortnightly, there’s the risk of a bill if:

• your income estimate is lower than your actual family income
• your family situation changes and we're not told about it
• your income tax is reassessed.

It’s very important to tell us about any changes straight away. We’ll adjust your payments to reduce the risk of an overpayment.

Changes to your family situation, income and working hours