More New Zealanders than ever are applying to take money out of their KiwiSaver accounts because of financial hardship.
In the year to March 31 2025, withdrawals had risen to NZ$443.6 million, up from $264.3 million in the previous year – a 50.8% increase.
IRD figures to September 2026 show the amounts withdrawn for first home purchases still exceed the amounts withdrawn for financial hardship. But applications for financial hardship withdrawals now outnumber those for first home purchases.
As one KiwiSaver provider told our research team:
The current number of [hardship] withdrawals is roughly three times what we had pre-COVID. This is really high numbers of people. This is just a massive expansion of poverty.
FinCap, a…