AlutraFree · nothing to buyYou asked if you qualify for a carer's benefit. That was the wrong question.
If you look after an older parent or partner, there are three separate buckets of support in New Zealand — and most families only ever ask about one of them. The Funding Checklist is all three, on paper, with a box to tick when you've made the call.
Most of it goes unclaimed for one reason
People ring Work and Income, ask whether they qualify for a carer's benefit, are told no, and stop. It is an entirely reasonable question. It just happens to miss most of what is there, because the support sits in three buckets and only one of them is a benefit with “carer” in the name.
- 1Money that can come to youThe carer's Supported Living Payment. One payment, and it is by some distance the smallest of the three buckets — which is why stopping here costs so much.
- 2Money and help for the person you care forDisability Allowance, their NZ Super or their own benefit, accident compensation, disability funding. Not paid to you — still pays for the care.
- 3Services that take the work off youCarer Support days, respite, home help, equipment, home modifications. Often worth more than any of the cash.
The checklist walks you through all three. Every one worth asking about, in the order that makes sense, with the words to use on the phone — and a box beside each one, because this takes weeks and nobody remembers which calls they have already made.
What's on it
- 1Start here — the needs assessmentIt is free, you can ask for one yourself, and most of the rest unlocks from it.
- 2The payment that can come to youThe one actually paid to the carer, the tests that decide it, and what to do with a no.
- 3Help with the household billsEight of them, including the three that are never offered unless you ask by name.
- 4Services that take work off youRespite, home help, self-managed funding, equipment. You are not meant to do every hour.
- 5If they were injured rather than unwellA different system, a different door, and a much bigger list behind it.
- 6Your job, and what they can claim themselvesThe sick leave rule almost no employed carer knows they can use — and why NZ Super rules nothing out.
- 7The call logWho you rang, what they said, what happens next. The part that stops you starting over.
One evening with the kettle on. Then you know.
Print it, read it once, and mark the five that might apply to you. Then make one call this week — the needs assessment one. That's the whole plan.