What if we paid the Supported Living Payment like we pay the pension?
A simple policy change that could dramatically lift disabled households out of poverty
I attended one of the disability policy workshops held by Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan recently. At the table I was at, an older blind gentleman quietly suggested a very revolutionary idea:
Why don’t we pay the Supported Living Payment like we do with the pension?
He went on to outline why this would work in terms of lifting disabled people out of poverty, enable people to work the hours they could manage, and reduce the administrative burden on individuals and the state alike.
I’ve been pondering this simple but effective idea since.
Non-means-tested benefits, like the Child Disability Allowance, are cheaper to administer - once you’ve jumped through the (extensive!) hoops to qualify, there is no need for ongoing reassessment (for permanent disabilities), no need for Work and Income staff to engage in means of fraud detection, and minimal time intensive case-management related to abatements.
Removing the means-testing/abatements means people on the SLP can work as many or as few hours as they can, without worrying about what this means for their benefit. If one week Sue can only manage 5 hours of work, but the next week she’s feeling better and can manage 15, she isn’t penalised for this with unhelpful income fluctuations.
Even more importantly, removing the partner’s income from assessments alleviates poverty and supports independence. The income threshold for the partner of a disabled person on the SLP is very low - less than $63k per annum before tax.
This supports disabled people to be independent and lifts households out of poverty:
Only 44% of disabled people can adequately meet living costs. This is a significant drop in living standards from the previous reporting period (2021), where nearly 62% of disabled people had sufficient income to meet their everyday needs.
Disabled adults, and children living in households where someone is disabled and/or has a health condition, are more likely to experience financial hardship and material deprivation.
Latest Stats NZ figures show that children living in disabled households were 2.4 times more likely to live in material hardship1, and 3.2 times more likely to live in severe material deprivation, when compared to children in non-disabled households.
A recent report from MSD found a range of additional costs are being borne by disabled people, including non-state-funded healthcare, medical treatments, medications and equipment, specialised food, specialised clothing and household contents, transport, home maintenance support, personal cares..
We can support families to lift themselves and their children out of poverty and deprivation simply by removing the SLP abatement related to a partner’s income.
The current laws around partner’s income puts disabled people in a difficult position. The income threshold for a partner is less than $63k per annum before tax. Yet, people receive the SLP precisely because they cannot work to supplement the household income. As Sarah from Write-Handed wrote back in 2019:
Because I fell in love, I am no longer eligible for any sort of financial support.
Supported Living Payment? Gone.
Accommodation supplement? Gone.
Disability Allowance? Gone.
As you can see in the tables at the end of this post, these aren’t huge sums of money, but they do make a difference to low-income households. Not only that, but being unable to hold down regular employment leaves women especially vulnerable to abuse. As Sarah so eloquently puts it:
People with disabilities and chronic illness deserve agency and autonomy. Forcing them into a situation where their partner is basically their carer, and the gatekeeper of access to their health needs, is dangerous, flawed and fundamentally wrong.
Reforming the Supported Living Payment to mirror the pension model isn’t a terribly radical idea. It is, however, a fair one. The costs are unlikely to make a blip in the MSD budget. More importantly though, doing so recognises the value of dignity and autonomy - and that constant reassessment and financial scrutiny is at its heart, undignifying and demeaning. It is a simple and easily administered way to directly address poverty and deprivation in disabled households.
The older gentleman at the workshop was right. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the most transformative:
Pay the Supported Living Payment like the pension.
Lift disabled households out of poverty.
Restore dignity and respect.
Tell me more!!
The SLP is a weekly benefit paid by Work and Income (aka WINZ or Ministry of Social Development) to people who either:
have a significant health condition, injury or disability that severely restricts their ability to work; or
are caring full-time for someone who is not their partner, and who would otherwise need hospital-level or residential-type care, and a medical certificate and documentation must be supplied from a health practitioner.
Who qualifies for it?
It is fairly restrictive - the individual applying must be 16 years or older and permanently and severely restricted in ability to work (or totally blind). Permanently means the restriction/health condition/disability is expected to continue for at least 2 years, or the person has a life-expectancy less than 2 years.
You should be not able to work or be unable to work more than 15 hours a week.
Individuals must be a New Zealand citizens, permanent residents, or hold a residence class visa under the Education Act and they must have lived continuously in NZ for at least 2 years since becoming citizen/resident and they must be ordinarily resident in NZ when applying.
If a person is applying on the basis of a disability or health condition then medical evidence is required.
If a person is applying on the basis of caring full-time for someone who is not their partner at home, then the person being cared for must need full-time care and attention equivalent to residential disability care, rest-home, hospital care, or similar. The carer must be available 24-hours if required (i.e., not working full-time elsewhere).
So how much do people actually get on the SLP?
Benefit rates change, so do check the rates on this Work and Income website. As of 1 April 2025, SLP rates are as follows:
As you can see, it isn’t a lot of money and people do pay tax! There are of course additional supports such as Accommodation Supplement, Disability Allowance, and the Winter Energy Payment available. Still, it’s not loads - and these are also means tested on your partner’s income.
What are about income abatements?
If you receive the SLP, you must declare any income you or your partner earn.
While the SLP doesn’t tend to means-test assets, it is income-tested based on you and your partner’s income. Income includes interest, income from investments, or any money you earn outside of the SLP.
SLP is income abated. This means that an individual (and their partner, if partnered) can earn up to $160/week before the SLP benefit is affected.
If an individual (and their partner) earns between $160 and $250/week, the SLP benefit reduces by $0.30 for each $1 earned in that band. If earning over $250/week, the SLP benefit reduces by $0.70 for each $1 earned over $250.
This can be a bit confusing, but fortunately Work and Income have this handy little table with the cut-off amounts for handy reference:
For totally blind persons, there is room for Work and Income to disregard some or all of the earnings discretionarily - that is, legislation is in place to allow blind persons to receive SLP even when earning above the threshold.
For further information, here are some useful links:
Material hardship is measured using the DEP-17 index, and in includes items such as:
going without fresh fruit or vegetables,
because of the cost having to put up with feeling cold,
to keep costs down unable to afford an unexpected $500 expense, without borrowing,
having to buy cheaper or less meat, because of the cost,
putting off doctor’s visits, to keep costs down.
The ‘older blind gentleman’ has more vision than any Ministry. I hope Priyanca Radhakrishnan was listening
The impact that this could have is tremendous. As you know Bex, I've just completed my final masters project with a focus on whānau violence and disability. I'm awaiting grades before I seek to publish, but I did manage to back up an argument with evidence that the disproportionately high rates of violence perpetrated against disabled people are exacerbated by the state imposing conditions of dependence on those surviving violence. In my opinion when you depend financially and logistically on an abuser for nearly every aspect of your life, and the state policy setting does not give you alternative options, the abuse becomes state-sanctioned. Simply treating SLP like the pension would go a long way towards giving disabled people the freedom to live without violence.