13 August 2025
Tēnā koe Jason Wu,
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 17 July 2025, requesting information regarding
deductions of Taiwanese pensions under the Social Security Act 2018.
I have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Please find my decision on each part of your request set out separately below.
1. The current full list of these Taiwanese pensions.
The current list of the Taiwanese pensions that are directly deductible under New
Zealand law is as follows:
• National Old Age Pension
• Labour Insurance Old Age Pension
• National Disability Pension
• Labour insurance Disability Pension
• National Survivors Pension Payment
• Labour Insurance Survivor Annuity
• Civil Service Retirement Pension
• Military Pension
• Employment Insurance Scheme
• Labour Insurance Old Age Pension
2. The total number of clients and the annual amount being deducted
currently.
Table: Number of Taiwanese Overseas Pension deductions and amounts
to NZS clients as at end of June 2025
Country
Number of clients
Annualised amount
Taiwan
813
$3,608,089.62
Notes:
• This is a number of Overseas Pensions
• The country given is where the Overseas Pension is paid from.
• This data includes only New Zealand Superannuation clients.
• The annualised amount is in New Zealand dollars. It is an approximation of
the annual value of overseas pensions, based on amounts and exchange
rates as at time of report.
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
• Figures are current as at the time of reporting. However, these may be
subject to change due to new historical information being recorded into
MSD systems Post-June 2016 numbers and deductions are calculated
using and improved methodology, which excludes some OSP, records that
are in the system but not deducted from the recipients NZS.
• To protect confidentiality the Ministry of Social Development uses
processes to make it difficult to identify an individual person or entity from
published data.
• These data tables have had random rounding to base three applied to all
cell counts in the table.
• A value of one or two may be rounded to zero or three.
• The impact of applying random rounding is that columns and rows may
not add exactly to the given column or row totals.
• The published counts will never differ by more than two counts.
3. What specific standards or requirements are used to determine
whether a particular Taiwanese pension is subject to these deductions?
The information you have requested can be found here:
https://workandincome.govt.nz/map/to-or-from-overseas/payments-from-
overseas/overseas-pensions.html
4. If the deduction falls under Section 187 of the 2018 Act, does MSD
need to actively demonstrate that a pension meets the criteria outlined
in subparagraphs a) through e)? This includes confirming that these
pensions are not Government occupational pensions, and "not"
voluntary contributions?
The Ministry of Social Development research the pension provider and scheme to
determine if it meets the definition which includes where it is a Government
occupational pension.
If the entire pension was only made up of voluntary contributions it wouldn’t be
determined to be deductible if that was the nature of the finding
If the pension is made up of mandatory and voluntary, the client would need to
provide evidence of the voluntary component for their individual situation.
5. Regarding entirely voluntary pension schemes, if evidence supports this
characterization and the MSD is unable to prove that said scheme is
mandated, is direct deduction still permissible?
If evidence supported that the pension scheme is entirely voluntary, it wouldn’t
be deductible.
6. Given that the issue of direct pension deductions relates to a civil
matter, should the 'balance of probabilities' standard apply? Does the
MSD need to obtain evidence proving a pension satisfies the Social
Security Act 2018 requirements *before* including it on the deduction
list? My concern is that, without such factual evidence, individuals could
be incorrectly subjected to excessive deductions.
The deduction list isn’t updated until after the research is done and peer
checked.
I will be publishing this decision letter, with your personal details deleted, on the
Ministry’s website in due course.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email]. If you are not satisfied with my decision on your request, you have the right to
seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to
make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
pp.
Anna Graham
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
