People are continuing to make early KiwiSaver withdrawals with members taking out over $190 million in June.
In June, KiwiSaver members made 7700 withdrawals totalling $191,811,884 - these withdrawals were done by people buying their first homes or those experiencing financial hardship.
This data comes from the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) which tracks monthly KiwiSaver statistics.
About 4080 withdrawals had been made because of financial hardship, totalling $36,490,457, according to IRD data, and there were 3620 withdrawals for first homes totalling $155,321,427.
For the number of KiwiSaver fund withdrawals, IRD rounds up to the nearest 10.
June’s figures are lower than May, which reached a monthly record high of over $234 million. March was also high, with withdrawals over $225 million.
In the year to June 2024, a total of $1,673,209,149 was withdrawn - of that $300,514,801 was because of financial hardship and $1,372,694,348 was for people buying their first homes.
People usually withdraw money from their KiwiSaver when they reach 65, which is retirement age, but you can also apply for early withdrawals to buy your first house or because of financial hardship.
In June, there were 84,993 savings suspensions - this is when people temporarily stop their contributions. Of those, 1076 stopped their contributions due to financial hardship.
As of June, 792,974 members had their accounts closed or chose to opt out of KiwiSaver. Of this, 605,239 members had closed their accounts while 187,735 chose to opt out.
Members usually have their accounts closed because of death, permanently leaving the country, retirement, serious illness or other reasons.
When it came to KiwiSaver scheme entry methods, 650,642 people were in default allocated schemes, 210,868 were in employer nominated schemes and 2,534,404 had actively chosen their schemes in June.
At 739,929 the 25 to 34 age demographic had the largest number of KiwiSaver members. The 35 to 44 age category follows with 736,662 members.
June was also the month when 3799 people became active or provisional (you have eight weeks before you can choose to opt out) KiwiSaver members. There are a total of 3,405,406 active or provisional KiwiSaver members, IRD data shows.
Changes for KiwiSaver
On Budget Day, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced changes to KiwiSaver including:
- increasing employer and employee contribution rates from 3% to 3.5% from April 2026. This will move to 4% in April 2028
- KiwiSaver members can choose to stay at the current 3% rate and still be matched at this rate by their employer
From July, some changes are already in place
People aged 16 and 17 are now eligible for KiwiSaver so they can access employer and Government contributions.
The Government’s contribution rate has also gone down to 25 cents for each dollar a member contributes. This was previously 50 cents for each dollar.
To get the Government’s full contribution of $260.72, people need to put in at least $1042.86 of their own money between July 1 to June 30 each year.
5 Comments
Australian economist Steve Keene makes the observation that when government spending is reduced the private sector has to withdraw savings and increase debt to maintain its position. A result of double entry accounting applied at the macroeconomic level.
A direct consequence of rising unemployment and record number of business liquidations. The growth sector in NZ right now are jobs at WINZ and jobs in debt collection.
Going for growth and getting NZ back on track.
But also, I don't think a country like NZ can imagine away the debt like the US is trying to do. If your currency is the reserve currency of the world, and you can enforce that with the threat and reality of war or colour revolution, then that's one thing. But when little old NZ starts letting debt get out of control our interest rates on international bonds will rise as we look like a household that can't manage itself
Nice graphics, thanks.
Many pulling their future retirement savings and opportunity cost thereof, to keep their overpriced houses their own. Sad indeed.
From Interests previous articles on early withdrawals:
$143mil January 2025
$186mil Feb 2025
$225mil March 2025
$234mil May 2025
$190mil June 2025
That is a LOT of future cashflow being sucked out of the system, by a system that was set up to help offset future need for pension increases and govt reliance. Why do they let people touch it for hardship, when it only masks a market correction in housing at the expense of peoples retirement funds.
Futures saving pulled to plug and prop the dying housing ponzi.....which is set for a larger collapse upto 2030.
The flailing monsters last throw of the dice to keep the sand castle alive against the rising DDDebt tides.
What could possibly go wrong from here.....
This effort to keep a behemoth balloon inflated on falsehoods, or forever large valuations is the sick chicken coming home to roost.
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