Minimum wage and benefits set to rise from April 1. Photo / 123RF
The financial year is coming to an end, and that means from next Tuesday, a lot of Kiwis will get more money in their wallets.
April 1 is when the Annual General Adjustment kicks in – when benefits and the minimum wage increase to account for wage growth or inflation.
Benefits are getting a 2.22% rise, and Super and the Veterans Pension get about a 3% increase.
Here are some of the changes in benefits expected from April 1:
The minimum wage is going up 1.5% to $23.50, affecting between 80,000 and 145,000 workers.
While it’s not in line with inflation, which sits at 2.2% as of January 22, it is in line with the NZ First-National coalition agreement to moderate the increases.
“The New Zealand economy is still recovering from a sustained period of high interest rates and recessionary conditions. In that context, delivering a modest increase in the minimum wage strikes the right balance between supporting workers and limiting further costs on business,” Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden said.
The starting-out and training minimum wage rates will be set at $18.80, to remain at 80% of the adult minimum wage.
Along with changes to benefits, power prices are also increasing from Tuesday. The average household bill will go up $10 a month this year, and $5 a month for the following four years.
The change is down to the significant investment required to maintain and upgrade New Zealand’s electricity network over the coming years.
Commerce Commissioner Vhari McWha said in November that “factors such as a growing population, an increase in extreme weather events, and greater reliance on electricity as a fuel, for uses like transport and industrial process heat, continue to test the capacity and resilience of the country’s electricity network”.
Student loan borrowers will be paying slightly more in repayments, affecting about 370,000 New Zealand-based borrowers. It’ll cost them about $1.20 a week on average.
The change is thanks to the Government freezing the student loan repayment threshold, which is usually adjusted for inflation.
Revenue Minister Simon Watts said the change would have an estimated five-year operating saving of $7.674 million and an additional one-off increase in the value of the student loan asset of $13.017 in 2024/25.
Pharmac will begin funding six more medicines for cancers and one for antibiotic-resistant infections from April 1.
Pharmac expects about 180 people with cancer and 30 people with antibiotic-resistant infections to benefit from these medicines over the next year.
It’ll also start funding desogestral, an effective hormonal treatment for endometriosis. Endometriosis is a chronic condition that affects around 120,000 New Zealanders.
There will be two changes to the Active Investor Plus (AIP) visa category come April 1.
The Growth category, focusing on higher-risk investments, will require a minimum investment of $5 million for a minimum period of three years.
The Balanced category, focusing on mixed investments, will require a minimum investment of $10 million over five years.
Other tweaks include expanding the scope of acceptable investments and removing potential barriers like the English language requirement.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about the changes coming from April 1 with NZ Herald business editor-at-large, Liam Dann.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
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Funding will be included in next week's Budget.