The government is allowing individuals affected by the coronavirus to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation in 2019–20 and a further $10,000 in 2020–21. Individuals will not need to pay tax on amounts released and the money they withdraw will not affect Centrelink or Veterans’ Affairs payments.

From mid-April 2020, eligible individuals will be able to apply online through myGov to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation before 1 July 2020. They will also be able to access up to a further $10,000 from 1 July 2020 for approximately three months.

Source ATO: ATO My GOV

To apply for early release, you must satisfy any one or more of the following requirements:

• You are unemployed.
• You are eligible to receive a job seeker payment, youth allowance for jobseekers, parenting payment (which includes the single and partnered payments), special benefit or farm household allowance.
• On or after 1 January 2020, either
  • you were made redundant
  • your working hours were reduced by 20% or more
  • if you are a sole trader, your business was suspended or there was a reduction in your turnover of 20% or more.

Apply here: Start Application

You should contact your KiwiSaver in New Zealand. You will have a provider, you need to contact them and make enquiries as to how you might access your KiwiSaver.

You need to either apply some action ‘listed below’ Covid 19 could last 3 months/6 months or longer

You can start actioning the following

• Call your debtors and negotiate smaller payments
• Call your real-estate agent to see if your landlord will reduce your rent
• Start a budget and plan to have 8 weeks rent aside 8 weeks food money aside
• Plan the children’s needs, medicines or medical treatments nappies etc
• Call your insurance companies and assess your options
• Consider your options to secure some funds

Then Fill this out

You can find out what you are entitled to outside of the Covid-19 payments by using the Payments & Services Finder.

This will give you a detailed list of all payments you are eligible to claim based on your visa status.