30 September 2025
Tēnā koe C. Neilson
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your email of 2 September 2025, requesting information about
Accommodation Supplement assistance for full-time students.
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.
•
How many Full-Time students in 2025 are receiving the Accommodation
Supplement that is mentioned on the Study Link website as something that
full time students may be eligible for?
Your request has been interpreted as the number of students receiving Student
Loan and Accommodation Supplement. Please find the data in the attached
Appendix. Note that not all students captured in the data may be studying full-
time.
•
How many students do you estimate would be eligible for this
Accommodation Supplement under the current legislation?
The Ministry currently does not forecast eligibility for Accommodation Supplement.
Therefore, I am refusing your request under section 18(g) of the Act as the
information you had requested is not held by the Ministry and I have no grounds
to believe that the information is either held by or closely connected to the
functions of another department, Minister of the Crown or organisation.
•
Referring to the link on the Study Link website that mentions who is eligible
for it, this makes no sense. It says you are not eligible if you receiving the
student allowance, if you are eligible for the student allowance but don't
take it, or if you are ineligible because of parents income/personal
income/partners income. Surely that means no one is eligible, so therefore
it would be stated as something students may be eligible for.
Please see the following link outlining situations where a student will qualify for
Accommodation
Supplement:
www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-
support/extra-help/accommodation-supplement/students-01.html Where the link provides information on general scenarios where students may be
able access the Accommodation Supplement, below are some more specific
examples that we commonly see:
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
o Where a student is in post graduate study as post graduate students are
not eligible for Student Allowance.
o Where a student cannot access Student Allowance as they did not meet
performance requirements.
o Where a student has used their maximum number of Student Allowance
weeks.
•
Is there any accommodation assistance that students are eligible for if they
are ineligible for student allowance, considering they have the same rental
costs as all other New Zealanders and are known to have to live in sub-
standard housing?
Students not eligible for Student Allowance may be able to access Student Loan
Living Costs to help fund their living expenses, including accommodation costs.
They may also be able to access other housing support products through the
Ministry, such as Rent Arrears payments.
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 a
t www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
pp.
Anna Graham
General Manager Ministerial and Executive Services
