Social media videos show how to falsely claim KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals, raising concerns about legitimacy. Photo / Getty Images
Social media videos show how to falsely claim KiwiSaver hardship withdrawals, raising concerns about legitimacy. Photo / Getty Images
By Checkpoint, RNZ
Videos filled with hacks and tips on how to falsely take claims out of your retirement fund are cropping up across social media, sparking concerns around whether hardship claims are being used for legitimate reasons.
A record number of hardship withdrawals have been taken out from KiwiSaverin the past year.
A fund manager told Checkpoint there are a multitude of social media videos full of workarounds to help people qualify for hardship withdrawals and effectively game the system.
Inland Revenue figures show between July 2024 and April 2025, more than $389 million was taken out of KiwiSaver for financial hardship reasons. That’s up from $300m in the year before.
TikTok influencers are being criticised over hardship fund advice. Photo / 123rf
“You need to apply through a loan company and get a decline letter... once you have that decline letter it lets the application know you looked for funds elsewhere.”
Another user urged people to ignore the guidelines laid out in the application, encouraging people to create extra expenses to put their finances in the red.
“If you come up positive, that’s all good, but you need to go and find another quote.
“You need to find another expense... get that number into a negative so you have more of an opportunity to get the amount that you want.”
KiwiSaver Fisher Funds general manager David Boyle told Checkpoint the videos are a concern.
“Some of that information that I’ve seen and heard just then on TikTok is disturbing.”
Boyle said those who are trying to “game” the system should think about what they are doing.
“It’s actually going to be impacting those that really, really need it,” Boyle said.
“They could be putting a lot more of our transactions into the system that aren’t necessarily going to be approved anyway.”
He said an increase in applications could slow down the process for those in need.
“They’re going to be in a situation where they can’t maintain their home or their debt is going to put them into a position that is going to put them into a far worse situation.”
Boyle said it was important to remember these claims were coming out of people’s retirement fund and taking away from their future investment.
Like Inland Revenue, Fisher Funds had also dealt with an increase in hardship withdrawals.
Boyle said it’s unclear how much impact the videos were having on the increase.
