Public Trust launches new system to streamline process for making KiwiSaver financial hardship and serious illness withdrawals
New Zealand’s biggest KiwiSaver supervisor has launched an online system to fast-track KiwiSaver financial hardship and serious illness withdrawal applications.
Public Trust said the new system for its KiwiSaver clients speeds up the process to give members in need faster access to their funds while introducing greater visibility around timelines, better communication and additional guidance on the process.
It comes as figures from Inland Revenue show the number of financial hardship withdrawals surpassed 58,000 in 2025, almost double that of 2023.
Serious illness account closures have also increased by 69% from 2022 to 2025, according to Inland Revenue data.
“Behind these figures are real people in financial distress or with serious health issues, and KiwiSaver providers struggling to keep up with the demand,” Public Trust’s general manager corporate trustee services David Callanan said.
“The new system aims to deliver better outcomes for [Kiwis] and for our providers.
“Critically, it means we can better meet the unprecedented demand now and into the future.”
So far, the Booster KiwiSaver Scheme and Koura are on board.
Four more providers will join in the next month, with the intention that the remainder of Public Trust’s KiwiSaver provider clients will move to the system, it said.
Public Trust acts as the independent supervisor for 14 KiwiSaver schemes with about $50 billion under its supervision.
Callanan said the new system directly answers the call made by the Retirement Commission in its latest Review of Retirement Income Policies to make hardship withdrawals easier and more consistent for those who need help.
“Providers have told us they are concerned about delays caused by manual systems and we’ve worked to find a solution,” he said.
“So far, the system is freeing up time and resources and removing a lot of complexity.”
Callanan said he anticipated significant opportunities for the industry through enhanced data insights.
“The new system should bring greater confidence in the data, replacing the current manual collection process across multiple providers, each with similar but slightly different ways of doing things.
“A consistent approach to data collection through the system should help deliver richer insights to inform future policy.”
While the new system is a significant change to the way applications are processed, the requirements for those applications remain the same.
Public Trust reviews all hardship and serious illness withdrawals, which have strict rules requiring multiple layers of review as well as evidence such as bank accounts, bills and debt.
For hardship, people need to be able to show they are really going backwards week in and week out.