New Zealand · KiwiSaver guide
KiwiSaver withdrawals for hardship or serious illness
Significant financial hardship and serious illness are separate grounds for asking to access KiwiSaver early. Hardship focuses on specified severe financial difficulty and can be limited to the amount needed to ease it. Serious illness focuses on a qualifying illness, injury or disability and may allow some or all of the account. Applying is not the same as being approved.
Where to start
Start with the reason for the request, then use the matching form and evidence route. A provider commonly administers the application, while the statutory approval decision for most schemes sits with the scheme supervisor; Inland Revenue handles eligible requests involving the first 2 months of membership.
Key points
The grounds overlap but are not identical
The standalone serious-illness route requires total and permanent inability to do work suited to the member's experience, education or training, or a serious and imminent risk of death.
The application channel depends on timing
After the first 2 months, start with the KiwiSaver provider. Within the first 2 months, the current IRD process applies.
Evidence supports a decision
Hardship evidence can cover income, expenses, assets, debts and alternatives; serious-illness evidence is medical.
Available account components differ
Government contributions are excluded from the hardship amount described by IRD but can be included in an approved serious-illness withdrawal.
How the two grounds differ
Significant financial hardship covers specified severe financial difficulties. IRD examples include being unable to meet minimum living expenses, mortgage enforcement against the main home, disability-related home modifications, medical or palliative-care costs, a dependent's funeral costs, and serious illness.
For the standalone route, the KiwiSaver Act defines serious illness as an injury, illness or disability that either makes the member totally and permanently unable to do work for which their experience, education or training suits them, or poses a serious and imminent risk of death. Serious illness can also create financial hardship, but the routes are not interchangeable: the evidence, amount available and decision being requested can differ.
Comparison table: scroll sideways to read all columns. With a keyboard, focus the table and use the left and right arrow keys.
| Ground | What it is about | General withdrawal scope if approved |
|---|---|---|
| Significant financial hardship | Specified severe financial difficulty, after reasonable alternative funding has been explored | Only eligible member and employer contributions under IRD's overview, and the approved amount may be limited to what is needed to ease the hardship |
| Serious illness | An injury, illness or disability causing total and permanent inability to do suitable work, or posing a serious and imminent risk of death | Some or all of the account may be available, including government contributions, subject to approval and the current process |
Suitable work is assessed by reference to the member's experience, education or training. This table does not decide whether a person meets the statutory test or calculate an available amount. The separate life-shortening congenital-condition route is not included here.
Where an application starts and who decides
For either ground, IRD directs a member who has been in KiwiSaver for more than 2 months to contact their scheme provider for the correct process. A member applying within the first 2 months uses Inland Revenue's process for the contributions it is holding.
For most non-restricted KiwiSaver schemes, the provider can supply the form, gather documents and administer the request, but the KiwiSaver Act places the approval decision with the scheme supervisor. A restricted scheme uses its manager. The provider and supervisor therefore have connected but different roles.
What the evidence is trying to show
A hardship application commonly needs a picture of income, essential expenses, assets, liabilities and other funding options. Evidence might include bank statements, bills, arrears or enforcement notices, and documents supporting medical, modification, palliative-care or funeral costs where relevant. The statutory process also requires the financial position to be formally declared.
A serious-illness application may require medical evidence about the diagnosis, prognosis and effect on the ability to work. The provider, supervisor or Inland Revenue process specifies the form and verification required; Ralenvo does not receive these documents.
Applying is not the same as approval
Submitting a form starts an assessment. The decision-maker must be satisfied that the relevant ground and evidence requirements are met. For hardship, reasonable alternative funding must also have been explored and exhausted, and an approved withdrawal can be limited to the amount considered necessary to ease the particular hardship.
This guide cannot determine eligibility, predict a decision or calculate an entitlement. Use the current provider or Inland Revenue channel for the application and keep sensitive financial or medical information within that process.
What to check next
- Hardship or serious-illness withdrawal requests depend on the circumstances and provider process.
- Use the official process before sharing sensitive personal details.
- Evidence and process requirements can be significant.
A useful next step
Understand contribution breaks and reductions
For advice about your personal circumstances: Finding licensed financial advice.
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Sources and dates
Information was checked on 19 September 2026. Open the current official page before relying on a rate, threshold, eligibility setting or process that may have changed.
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