When can I access my KiwiSaver if I live in Australia?

What is the normal rule?

Your KiwiSaver is locked until you reach the age at which New Zealand Superannuation starts.

Schedule 1, clause 4 of the KiwiSaver Act 2006 is headed "Withdrawal age" and says that, subject to the other permitted withdrawals, a member "is not permitted to withdraw amounts from their KiwiSaver scheme before the date on which the member reaches the New Zealand superannuation qualification age", and is permitted to withdraw on and after that date.

That age comes from section 7(1) of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001, which entitles a person to New Zealand Superannuation once they attain "the age of 65 years".

Leaving the country does not change the age. It changes which other doors are open, and for Australia it closes one.

Can I cash it out because I have emigrated?

Not to Australia. Everywhere else, yes.

Clause 14 is the emigration rule. It lets a member withdraw their accumulation no earlier than one year after permanently emigrating from New Zealand, less two things that stay behind: the Crown contribution that came from the member tax credit, and anything that had been transferred in from an Australian complying superannuation scheme. Alternatively the member can have the money transferred to an approved foreign scheme.

But clause 14 opens with four words that decide this whole question: "Unless clause 14B applies".

What does clause 14B do?

It carves Australia out.

Clause 14B is headed "Exceptions to clause 14 for Australian permanent emigration" and applies after a member's permanent emigration to Australia. What it offers is one thing only: at any time after emigrating, the member may apply to have their accumulation transferred to an Australian complying superannuation scheme. The manager must then transfer the whole accumulation.

There is no cash withdrawal in clause 14B. Because clause 14 is disapplied whenever 14B applies, moving to Australia removes the one-year cash-out that moving to any other country would have given you.

So a New Zealander in Sydney and a New Zealander in Singapore, both a year after leaving, are in genuinely different positions. One can take the money. The other can move it into Australian super or leave it in KiwiSaver.

Why is it set up that way?

Because the two countries built a route for the money to travel between their retirement systems rather than leak out of both.

Clause 14B was inserted by the Taxation (Annual Rates, Trans-Tasman Savings Portability, KiwiSaver, and Remedial Matters) Act 2010 and took effect on 1 July 2013. The name of that Act tells you the intent: savings crossing the Tasman stay retirement savings.

The mirror of it appears back in clause 14 itself. Money that came into KiwiSaver from an Australian complying superannuation scheme is subtracted from what you could withdraw on emigrating elsewhere. Australian-sourced money does not become cashable by passing through New Zealand.

Is there any way to get at it earlier?

There are exceptions, and they are about circumstance rather than geography.

The Act's scheme rules provide for withdrawals on grounds including significant financial hardship, serious illness, a life-shortening congenital condition, and buying a first home. These sit outside the general lock and each has its own test and its own application process, usually with a statutory declaration and often medical evidence.

None of them are triggered by having moved to Australia. They would apply, or not, in exactly the same way had you stayed.

What this guide does not tell you

It does not tell you whether transferring to an Australian fund is a good idea. That turns on tax, fees, investment options, insurance, and the fact that the move is difficult to reverse. There is a separate guide on how the transfer works, and it is a different question from when you can get at the money.

It also leaves alone what your KiwiSaver does to an Australian means-tested payment while you wait, which has its own guide, and how a withdrawal at 65 is taxed on either side of the Tasman.

One last practical point. Clause 14 and clause 14B both ask for proof, including a statutory declaration that you have permanently emigrated and evidence of where you have been living. Permanent emigration is a thing you have to demonstrate, not simply assert.