Should KiwiSaver hardship applications be centralised?
KiwiSaver withdrawal numbers are up, but it’s not an easy process to go through, one adviser says.
Wednesday, January 28th 2026, 6:00AM 
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Inland Revenue data shows that across 2025, there were 58,460 KiwiSaver withdrawals for hardship reasons.
About 48,000 withdrawals were made by people buying a first home.
In total, $514.8 million was withdrawn from KiwiSaver because of hardship, and $2.1 billion for a first home.
Dean Anderson, founder of Kernel, said the increase in withdrawals year-on-year created an extra level of workload that was a pain point for many providers.
He said it would be better if there was a centralised system to deal with the applications.
Ed Glennie, of Genesis Advice, said he had dealt with 11 hardship applications from his 370 clients.
He said, at an ANZ KiwiSaver adviser day, its head of investments, Fiona Mackenzie, had taken an opposing view to Anderson’s.
“She had a very interesting point – and this could be more the banking perspective – they want to be there through thick and thin.
“That it’s important for them to get the overall picture for the client… she said we don’t want to outsource it because that’s not really fair to the customers, right? It’s all very well that you’re with us in the good times and then suddenly in the bad times we outsource you to someone else. I thought that was quite interesting.”
He said he would help clients through the process as an adviser. But he said it should be a worst-case scenario option.
“We were looking at one this morning … it was a person who just has debts outstanding. And one last year where it was a car that they needed to get to and from work.
“They are the sort of situations that you can understand why they're doing it, but it's not for me to judge. I'll help them go through that process if they ask me, but really they need to get that material.”
He said it could be a complex process that took time to work through. “They are not just ‘hey send a form in and we’ll give you the money. It really is quite a process.”
It could be so onerous that people would only do it if they had to, he said.
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not a fix the car scheme
not a bail out your bad choices scheme
the temptation for it to become so grows as balances grow. And KiwiSaver reules must resist it.
Every year there will be a new record for withdrawals, because there will be more in it to take, and more people looking to use it.
That's not a failure, that means it works.