Over 8000 early KiwiSaver withdrawals were made in August, with the bulk of the money going towards first home purchases.
August’s dollar value was $226,301,359 and the number of early withdrawals was 8580, with 4080 going towards first homes while 4500 went towards financial hardship.
While numerically more withdrawals were for financial hardship, by value first home buyers took out a lot more money. However members can withdraw funds under both categories within the same timeframe.
First home withdrawals reached $186.6 million in August, while financial hardship withdrawals totalled $39.7 million.
These figures come from Inland Revenue (IRD), which rounds the number of KiwiSaver fund withdrawals up to the nearest 10.
August’s early withdrawal figure is lower than the monthly high in March of more than $296 million. July’s early withdrawals were around $260.1 million.
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 August, 848,902 members had their accounts closed or chose to opt out of KiwiSaver. Of this, 658,858 had their accounts closed while 190,044 chose to opt out.
Members usually have their accounts closed because of death, permanently leaving the country, retirement, serious illness or other reasons. Of the members who had their accounts closed in August, the majority had entered retirement.
In August, there were 83,533 savings suspensions. This is when people temporarily stop their contributions. Of those, 1129 had a saving suspension because of financial hardship.
When it came to KiwiSaver schemes, 636,215 members were in default allocated schemes, 205,073 were in employer nominated schemes and 2,631,229 had actively chosen their schemes.
In terms of demographics, the 35 to 44 age group had the largest number of KiwiSaver members. This was followed by the 25 to 34 age category.
During August, 5508 people became active or provisional KiwiSaver members, you have eight weeks before you can choose to opt out. There are a total of 3,481,257 active or provisional KiwiSaver members, IRD data shows.
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