Working for Families

What the payments are worth

For the year from 1 April 2026:

- Family Tax Credit: $152 a week for the eldest child ($7,921 a year) and $124 a week for each other child ($6,454 a year). - In-Work Tax Credit: up to $147 a week ($7,670 a year). This is temporarily higher than usual; it rose from $97 a week on 1 April 2026 and is scheduled to return to $97 a week ($5,070 a year) after 31 March 2027. - Best Start: up to $77 a week ($4,041 a year) for each child under three. For children born before 1 April 2026 the first year is not income-tested. For children born on or after that date, all three years are.

The Family Tax Credit and In-Work Tax Credit are paid in full while family income is $44,900 or less. Above that, entitlement reduces by 27.5 cents for every dollar of income, which is the abatement rate. Best Start has its own test: it reduces by 21% of family income above $79,000.

A worked example

An example, not a quote for anyone's actual entitlement.

A couple with two children aged 5 and 8, combined family income $75,000, both working.

Maximum entitlement is $7,921 for the eldest plus $6,454 for the second child, plus $7,670 of In-Work Tax Credit. That is $22,045 a year.

Abatement: family income of $75,000 less the $44,900 threshold is $30,100. At 27.5%, that reduces the entitlement by $8,277.50.

Entitlement: $22,045 less $8,277.50, or about $13,767 a year. Roughly $264 a week.

Two things follow. First, that is a material share of household income, which is why an unexpected change to it hurts. Second, every extra dollar earned above $44,900 costs 27.5 cents of Working for Families, on top of income tax and any student loan repayment, which is worth understanding before assuming that overtime is worth what it looks like.

What people commonly get wrong

"We earn too much to qualify." With two or three children the payments do not run out until family income is well past what most people assume. It costs nothing to check with IRD's calculator.

"The amount I'm paid is the amount I'm entitled to." Weekly and fortnightly payments are based on the income you estimated for the year. If you underestimate, IRD pays you too much and recovers the difference at the end-year square-up. That bill arrives long after the money was spent, which is the single most common Working for Families problem.

"I need to tell them at the end of the year." Updating your income estimate as soon as your pay changes, or a partner's hours change, keeps the square-up small. It is far easier to absorb a small correction than a lump sum.

"It's just one payment." It is four different credits with different rules, and they abate differently. Losing eligibility for one does not mean losing the others.

Where it meets your weekly budget

Working for Families is income, and it usually arrives weekly or fortnightly. That makes it easy to treat as ordinary spending money, which is fine, right up until a square-up arrives or a payment changes because your estimate was revised.

Two habits help. Keep your income estimate current, so the payment you receive is close to the payment you have earned. And know what is genuinely spendable each week once rent, power, childcare and instalments are accounted for, rather than reading the balance in the account. That second number is Safe to Spend, and you can try it on your own figures with the free calculator at /safe-to-spend#calculator.

This is general information about how the payments work, not advice about your entitlement. IRD is the authority on what you can claim.