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- Portability: Retiring Overseas
- Kiwis in the US/Americans Down Under
- Kiwis Retiring in Australia Beware!
- CPP: Canadian Pensions Pirated
- A New Victim
- Dual Entitlement: British Pensions
- Dutch Pensions
- Kiwisaver
- Human Rights Commission
- Special Banking Option
- MSD: Deceiving Parliament and the Public
- New Crackdown on the Elderly
- Pension Equality
- About This Site
Kiwisaver
Introduced in July 2007, KiwiSaver established New Zealand’s own second-tier contributory retirement plan.
KiwiSaver is similar in many respects to other countries’ second-tier retirement savings programs (e.g. the Canada Pension Plan). It is government initiated, paid out in old age and paid only to those who have contributed, the amount depending on the individual’s personal contributions complemented by government sweetners.
Unlike most overseas retirement plans however, KiwiSaver is partly state-funded. Whether KiwiSaver is compulsory or voluntary is a gray area. All persons on joining the work force are automatically enrolled and can only opt out (provided they know) within two to eight weeks from enrollment after which it becomes a binding agreement. Contributions from employers are mandatory.
KiwiSaver differs from other nations' old age programs in that it is not paid out on a monthly basis on retirement, but in one lump sum. The most important consideration however is that KiwiSaver is a government-administered second-tier retirement savings program (including some government funding).
Significantly, KiwiSaver is not subjected to Section 70 of the Social Security Act. In exempting KiwiSaver from the direct deduction policy, hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders have embraced the program - had it not been exempted from NZ Super deductions, no one would have accepted KiwiSaver. Amounts saved in KiwiSaver are paid in addition to full NZ Super: “KiwiSaver is designed to complement NZ Super” (former Finance Minister, Dr Cullen).
If the government’s so-called pension principles were to be applied consistently, KiwiSaver should also be deducted from NZ Super. If persons from overseas and their partners are not permitted more than one state-administered pension, why should KiwiSaver be exempted?
IT IS THE NEW ZEALANDER WORKING OVERSEAS WHO IS DISADVANTAGED
New Zealanders working overseas are denied participation in KiwiSaver. If they save for their retirement in programs similar to KiwiSaver while working overseas, those savings (except from Australia) are then deducted from their NZ Super entitlement if and when they return to New Zealand.
New Zealanders who stay home and pay into KiwiSaver do not face the same penalties. This disparity exposes the duplicity of the government’s standard argument, “New Zealanders who have worked overseas should not be advantaged over those who have stayed home.”
Politicians and bureaucrats have been desperately scrambling to establish, unconvincingly, that KiwiSaver does not have like contingencies with pensions subject to section 70 of the Social Security Act.
Dr Cullen, for example, argued that KiwiSaver cannot be likened to overseas pensions because KiwiSaver “is not government-protected”. Former Social Development Minister Ruth Dyson went one better. Her justification hung on a single qualifying adjective: other countries’ employment-based schemes were to remain subject to section 70 because they, unlike KiwiSaver, are “overseas” pensions!
SUMMARY: Any person who invests in the NZ government retirement program called KiwiSaver can receive full NZ Super entitlements. In contrast, any person who invests in an overseas government retirement program before coming, or coming back, to New Zealand is penalized. Aside from those individuals who are handsomely paid to enforce these policies, it should be obvious to anyone that this is a clear-cut case of discrimination.
KiwiSaver has many similarities to other countries’ retirement savings plans.
Unlike overseas retirement savings plans, KiwiSaver is exempted from the direct deduction policy.
Politicians have been desperately scrambling to establish that KiwiSaver is NOT similar to overseas retirement programs with absurd arguments.
Kiwis working offshore are NOT permitted to join KiwiSaver, but are penalized if they invest in similar schemes overseas.
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