Early KiwiSaver withdrawals for financial hardship overtook the number of withdrawals for first home purchases in September, but the bulk of early withdrawal money went towards first home purchases.
In September, the number of early withdrawals reached 9690, with 5440 for financial hardship and 4250 for first homes.
September’s total dollar value for early KiwiSaver withdrawals was $243,623,817. First home withdrawals reached $195.7 million in September, while financial hardship withdrawals totalled $47.9 million.
These figures come from Inland Revenue (IRD), which rounds the number of KiwiSaver fund withdrawals up to the nearest 10. Members can withdraw funds under both categories within the same timeframe.
September’s early KiwiSaver withdrawal figure is lower than the monthly high in March of more than $296 million. August’s early withdrawals were around $226.3 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 September, 852,895 members had their accounts closed or chose to opt out of KiwiSaver. Of this, 662,819 had their accounts closed while 190,076 chose to opt out.
Members usually have their accounts closed because of death, permanently leaving the country, withdrawing from KiwiSaver due to retirement, serious illness or other reasons.
In September, there were 84,089 savings suspensions. This is when people temporarily stop their contributions. Of those, 1142 had a saving suspension because of financial hardship.
In terms of KiwiSaver schemes, 634,785 members were in default allocated schemes, 204,560 were in employer nominated schemes and 2,638,322 had actively chosen their schemes.
The 35 to 44 age group had the largest number of KiwiSaver members. This was followed by the 25 to 34 age category.
During September, 5450 people became active or provisional KiwiSaver members, you have eight weeks before you can choose to opt out. There are a total of 3,486,707 active or provisional KiwiSaver members, IRD data shows.
Yearly KiwiSaver data
IRD released annual KiwiSaver data at the end of September, which showed over 100,000 early KiwiSaver withdrawals were made in the June year, worth more than $2.8 billion. By volume just over half were due to financial hardship, but by value the bulk went towards first home purchases.
When it came to contribution rates, 1,360,328 members were making no contributions in the year to June with IRD saying those in the “no contribution category” were members who were children, not in work including retirees and on a savings suspension.
This also included people who were receiving accident compensation, benefit or paid parental leave which was not subject to compulsory deduction, people who have died, people who were overseas or contributing to other work-based savings schemes.
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