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Retirement savings are increasingly being used to supplement people's incomes, with the number of financial hardship withdrawals now surpassing the number for withdrawals for first home deposits for the first time. Inland Revenue data shows in each of the past nine consecutive months the number of withdrawals for hardship reasons was higher than the number of a home deposit. The data shows prior to 2023 first home deposit numbers clearly outstripped the numbers of those in hardship, but that this gap started to close during 2023. The most recent data for March shows 4.980 hardship withdrawals and 4,190 first home deposit withdrawals. Tom Hartmann is Personal Finance Lead at Sorted.co.nz which is run by the Retirement Commission.
