When we started this website in 2010, our first tip was not to fall in love with someone who had an overseas pension. This had to be taken seriously until 9 November 2020 when the Spousal Provision policy was abolished.

This was as strange as telling you that you should not fall in love with:

1. a Kiwi if you were entitled to a nice contributory overseas pension because at old age you would, under certain circumstances, have to pay for this person's pension, too;

2. a foreigner or returning Kiwi with a good overseas pension because this could cost you your entitlement to NZ Super.

So the first tip about how to avoid poverty at old age was: Make a runner when an attractive middle-aged man or woman who caused this "butterflies in the stomach" feeling told you about his or her successful professional career in an economically successful overseas country. 15 or 20 years in a good job overseas could easily mean that this person was entitled to an overseas pension amounting to two NZ Supers, and this meant that thanks to the Spousal Provision you would not get any NZ Super.

Therefore it was wise to either choose a 20-something mail-order bride who had nothing to lose, a young person who had just started his or her career and would bring an entitlement as small as NZ$ 50 per month, or choose a millionaire. In the latter case you would not have had to worry about NZ$ 1,000 more or less each month.

Gratefully these times are over. The Spousal Provision is gone since 9 November 2020 and you can - in some cases still only theoretically - fall in love with whomever your heart tells you to.

Don't consider moving to your partner's country if an old Social Security Agreement exists

If you are over 65, receive NZ Super and have fallen in love with a stranger, consider moving to a country with which New Zealand has no Social Security Agreement, and if a Social Security Agreement exists, don't go to Ireland, Greece, Jersey and Guernsey, the UK and Australia. Best avoid falling in love with a Pacific Islander, too.

Move to your partner's country if no Social Security Agreement exists

According to MSD, "under the General Portability rules, the proportional rate of payment is not reduced by the amount of overseas pension that a person receives but is reduced to take into account periods where a person has not resided in New Zealand". This means that you receive proportionate NZ Super reflecting the time spent in New Zealand (1/540th of NZ Super for every month, tax-free). If you have spent your whole life in New Zealand and receive NZ Super, you will receive the full rate if you move to a non-agreement country.

See page about the Portability rules and the Pitfalls of Portability.

Never forget your list of Social Security Agreements

Always carry a list of countries that have Social Security Agreements with New Zealand in your pocket when you go out at night. Or put it next to the computer if you are into online dating. On the other hand: if you are serious about dating you could learn the list of SSA countries by heart in a breeze; the list includes only eleven countries plus one the New Zealand government has made up to make the list look longer.

When married couples become flatmates

MSD let us know in their response to our OIA request (18 March 2016) that divorce is not necessary if a couple whose marriage has broken down live together as flatmates only. They wrote: "When a client's change in circumstances arises, they are required to notify the Ministry as soon as they can. This ensures their record is kept up to date and they continue to receive the correct benefit payments. A client can notify their changes by contacting the contact centre or notifying staff on site. A client is asked to fill in the 'change in personal details form' at the site and the records are updated accordingly."

This means: if you stay married and become friends, you can keep living together and both receive NZ Super at the shared rate at not the lower married rate. (This tip was very handy when the Spousal Provision still existed: The overseas pension was deducted from the individual's NZ Super who received the overseas pension, the spousal deduction ceased.)

Why a fake divorce will not work

We do explicitly NOT recommend to divorce if you are happily married, just for the sake of receiving a higher pension. If you keep on living at the same address but try to convince WINZ that you are no longer a couple, WINZ might investigate you. We do not know if they hide in the shrubs near your property, camp inside your neighbour's wheelie bins with food supplies for a fortnight, or what other methods their 450 investigators use to find out if you go out together, walk hand in hand, share BBQs in the garden. They might spy on you even if this causes higher costs than gains. It is impossible to pull such an orchestrated life through over an extended period, it adds significantly to the existing stress caused by the anger of being ripped off by the state.

WINZ will also find out about changes in your personal life that you do not report, as required. Meaning: you have to tell them when you marry or move in with someone with overseas pension. You surely do not have to inform them about your new-found love with the overseas pensioner next door. As far as we know, out-of-house sex and other forms of intimacy do not yet lead WINZ to apply whichever section of the, uhmm: Act.

Just to publish the information MSD has given us on this topic on 18 March 2016: "The Ministry has not hired any private investigators or hired additional staff to look into pensioners with overseas pensions."

Practical tips

• Take on US citizenship if you intend to return to New Zealand in retirement

Anyone working in the USA should seriously consider acquiring US nationality to protect future entitlement and payout of US Social Security against the non-portability legislation of the USA when someone moves to another country that does not have a Social Security Agreement with the USA, e.g. New Zealand. Becoming tax-liable in the USA is merely a consequence and protecting payment of 80% of a pension is worth more than avoiding a 20% tax liability.

• Consider holidaying in Australia only instead of moving there permanently in retirement

If you have worked in New Zealand most of your life and want to retire in Australia, this could become a hard hitting boomerang. Due to the Social Security Agreement between the two countries, you have to apply for Australian Age Pension. This is income- and asset-tested. So it is highly likely that you do not qualify for it if you move to Australia with savings and assets. If this is the case you will not get any NZ Super, as the amount New Zealand would pay must never be higher than Australian Age Pension. You can travel for up to 26 weeks without risking the loss of NZ Super. You need to make an appointment with WINZ and inform them about your travel plans if you intend to stay away longer.

• Think well before giving up German citizenship just to cash in your German pension contributions.

For the nitty-gritty aspects of German pension entitlements and how they relate to citizenship, see our German pages.

• Get confirmations about voluntary contributions early

Think twice before continuing to make voluntary contributions to the state pension fund of your country of origin to increase your pension entitlement. It might backfire in two ways:

1. If you draw an age pension, WINZ will deduct it from your NZ Super entitlement. It can take forever to get a confirmation which part of your overseas pension is from compulsory and which part is from private contributions. Only then you might succeed to convince WINZ that they can only deduct a part of your overseas pension from NZ Super. But don't despair, eventually it will be worked out which percentage of your overseas pension will not be deducted. The Swiss embassy even recommends to make private contributions to the Swiss pension fund (AHV) after moving to New Zealand. Just get the paperwork done early, so you don't have to fight to get your money back.

2. If you are entitled to and decide to apply for a lump-sum refund of your contributions, you may only get back part of what you have paid in. This is the case for German pensions. Any refund is only 50% of contributions, even if voluntary contributions were not made on a 50/50 employer/employee basis but were 100% self-funded.

• Save in a private pension fund or life insurance

Such private funds are not deducted from NZ Super. But you have to think hard in which of the countries you save. You might get out more from an insurance in your country of origin but the exchange rate might make you lose money in the end if you want to spend it in New Zealand. On top of that, you might have to pay taxes on the payout in New Zealand despite life insurance payouts being tax-free in New Zealand. (Too complicated to go into detail here.) If you are lucky you make huge gains - but you just do not know when you start paying your contributions.

Another danger is that a government suddenly changes its policy. In Germany, for example, since 2005 you have to pay tax on superannuation (DRV-Rente) above a basic tax-free amount, the tax-free rate getting lower and lower until those people retiring after 2040 have to pay tax on 100% of their superannuation; government-supported saving schemes and subsidies, as well as tax-deductible provisions were scrapped.

In New Zealand the Government could get the idea to introduce means-tested pensions, and KiwiSaver would suddenly become part of your taxed income, or could impact your entitlement to NZ Super. We do not want to be scaremongers but we, first, do not trust politicians, and second, we cannot imagine that any superannuation policy can be upheld for a century. New Zealand's policy dates back to 1938!