I got a notice or letter about my Working for Families payments

In February or March, you will receive a Working for Families notice of entitlement or a ‘more information required’ letter.

What to do if you receive a notice of entitlement

You’ll receive a notice of entitlement if we have all your income and family information. The notice will tell you what your payments will be from 1 April. It will also tell you the income and family details we’ve used to work out how much to pay you.

If the details in your notice are correct, you do not need to do anything. You’ll automatically receive the payments shown in your notice from 1 April. If any of the details are incorrect, you’ll need to update them in myIR.

What to do if you receive a ‘more information required’ letter

You’ll receive a ‘more information required’ letter if we have not got enough information about your income. The letter will tell you what information we need from you to finalise your notice of entitlement. Once you’ve updated your income and family information, we’ll finalise your notice of entitlement and send it to you.

Your Working for Families payments will stop if you do not review and update your income information before 1 April. Your payments will resume when you have confirmed your income information with us.

How to update your details

You can update your details by logging into myIR and selecting ‘Family and income details’ from your Working for Families account panel. Or you can send us a secure message by selecting ‘I want to’ and then ‘Send a message’. You’ll need to include any information requested in your letter.

What to do if you receive a lump sum payment

If you receive Working for Families as a lump sum payment at the end of the tax year (rather than weekly or fortnightly) you will not receive a notice of entitlement or ‘more information required’ letter in February or March.

You’ll receive an income tax assessment in June or July. You’ll need to check whether the income and family information in your income tax assessment is correct. Once confirmed, we’ll send you a Working for Families notice of assessment showing you the amount we will pay into your bank account.

What to do if you receive payments through MSD

If you receive Working for Families from MSD, you will not receive a notice of entitlement or ‘more information required’ letter in February or March. You do not need to do anything.

During the tax year

You’ll get a new notice of entitlement any time your circumstances change and your payments change as a result. 

It's important to let us know when your circumstances change so we can update your payments and help you avoid an overpayment (which you'd need to repay to us).

Changes to your family or income details