Superannuation

It is UnitedFuture policy to:

• Give people the option of choosing to receive New Zealand Superannuation at reduced rates down to 60 or increasingly enhanced rates if they hold off until between 66 and 70.
• Introduce compulsory Kiwisaver, which will increase the saving rate of New Zealanders, deepen the investment pool and provide financial security and certainty in retirement.
• Change the annual formulation of NZ Super, by calculating it based upon the anticipated forecasted changes to the consumer price index and increases in the average wage for the following 12 months. The current formulation creates a lag that cheats our over 65s of their full entitlement. Any unforeseen changes to inflation or wages will be adjusted at each April, in favour of superannuitants.

Social Security Act 1964 Section 70

• In UnitedFuture’s view, the provisions of Section 70 should only apply where the overseas pension in question has been fully funded from general tax revenues. Overseas pensions that are based on either a compulsory individual contribution, or are in the form of a national insurance scheme, or which may be a combination of both and are deemed to be equivalent to a national pension should be exempted from the requirements of Section 70 and therefore should be paid in full to the recipient without impacting on the entitlement to New Zealand Superannuation.
• This would mean that the only pension arrangements to be captured by the provision of Section 70 would be national tax-payer funded pension schemes in other countries. Contributory pensions, regardless of whether they are on a compulsory national basis or not, and private pensions should, in our view, be exempted from the provisions of Section 70.