More than half early KiwiSaver withdrawals in January prompted by financial hardship

The latest Inland Revenue KiwiSaver early withdrawal figures show more than half were prompted by financial hardship. 

In January, KiwiSaver members made 7570 withdrawals totalling $173,499,920. Of those, 4570 were for financial hardship and 3000 were for first home purchases,  Inland Revenue (IRD) data shows.

This follows December KiwiSaver figures, showing a monthly high of 6030 withdrawals because of financial hardship and 4290 for first homes. 

KiwiSaver members can withdraw funds under both categories within the same period. 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.

The 4570 January withdrawals for financial hardship totalled $39,770,233, while the withdrawals for first homes reached $133,729,687.

January’s total withdrawal figure is lower than the record set in November, when the value withdrawn hit a new monthly high of $255,323,171.

For the number of KiwiSaver fund withdrawals, IRD rounds up to the nearest 10.

In January, there were 82,529 savings suspensions, which is when people temporarily stop their contributions. Of those, 1094 stopped their contributions due to financial hardship.

As of January, 820,903 members had their accounts closed or chose to opt out of KiwiSaver. Of this, 631,828 members had closed their accounts while 189,075 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 schemes, 643,512 people were in default allocated schemes, 208,152 were in employer nominated schemes and 2,576,732 had actively chosen their schemes in January. 

At 756,787 the 35 to 44 age demographic had the largest number of KiwiSaver members. The 25 to 34 age category follows with 734,919 members.

During January, 4331 people became active or provisional (you have eight weeks before you can choose to opt out) KiwiSaver members. There are a total of 3,436,672 active or provisional KiwiSaver members, IRD data shows.