Super bill for older migrants tops $1 billion a year, doubles in a decade

Author: Ethan Griffiths,
Publish Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2026, 5:00am

The annual superannuation bill for older migrants has hit a billion dollars - five years after Parliament tightened eligibility.

But the Finance Minister isn’t worried about the rise, pointing to recent changes which she says will ensure taxpayers aren’t footing the bill for newly arrived residents.

Data released under the Official Information Act shows at December 2025. the Crown paid $20,687,000 a week to 42,852 superannuitants who became resident in New Zealand aged 50 or older.

Annually, the total works out at $1.07 billion.

The sum has more than doubled in the last 10 years: in December 2015, the annual cost totalled $497 million.
The total cost of super for all recipients is $24.7 billion this financial year - but is expected to rise to $31.2 billion by 2029/30.

Criteria new migrants must meet to receive super have been tightened in recent years.

In 2020, National MP Andrew Bayly and NZ First MP Mark Patterson struck a deal that saw Bayly pick up Patterson’s member’s bill tightening eligibility, after NZ First failed to return to Parliament.

The bill was designed to keep the costs of super affordable, while ensuring only those who contributed to New Zealand over many years benefited.

That bill was passed in 2021, introducing a sliding scale of eligibility.

Up until then, all recipients of NZ Super must have lived in the country for at least 10 years.

That’s still the case for many, but the legislation will gradually increase the requirement to 20 years of residency, increasing by one year for each year of age.

It means superannuitants born before July 1959 only have to have been resident for 10 years, while future superannuitants born after July 1977 must have been resident for 20 years.

Recipients also must have lived in New Zealand for at least 5 years after the age of 50.

National, Labour and Act supported the changes, while the Greens and Te Pati Maori were opposed.

Asked whether she was comfortable with the rising cost, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the issue’s already been addressed.

“There have been changes introduced which are being progressively rolled out, to ensure that the balance is fair, so that New Zealanders who have worked here their whole lives aren’t footing the bill for migrants who have only moved here more recently.”

Asked whether the changes went far enough, Willis said it is a progressive rollout, so in effect the changes go further each year anyway.

But NZ First leader Winston Peters disagreed.

“No, they’re not [appropriate], but it would be two billion dollars if we hadn’t made the change.”

“This is a wait-and-see moment. You should watch out, we’ve got announcements to make about this”.

NZ First has previously campaigned on a pro-rata system for super, paid based on how long recipients have lived in New Zealand between the ages of 20 and 65.

In 2015, an NZ First members bill that would have introduced pro-rata super was narrowly defeated.

Labour and the Greens supported the bill, but National opposed it, with MPs labelling the party “disgusting,” “bigoted” and “racist” for bringing the bill to the House.

Ethan Griffiths is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, based in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He joined NZME as a print journalist in 2020, previously working as an Open Justice reporter in the Bay of Plenty and Wellington, and as a general reporter in Whanganui.