Urgent Financial Help from WINZ Can I get an advanced payment for my Benefit? Can I get temporary additional support? Can I get a grant for emergency dental work? Can I get help to find a job?
Sometimes you need urgent help as soon as possible to help you deal with an emergency or unusual situation. If you’re in this situation, get in touch with WINZ as soon as possible to see if they can help you out. If you do ask for urgent help from WINZ, be prepared that you might need to pay it back later.
Here are some ways that you might be able to get urgent temporary help.
If you’re already receiving a benefit, but it’s not enough to reasonably cover an immediate need that you have, then you might be able to get some of your benefit paid to you in advance.
If the advance payment is to pay for an item that you urgently need (for example if your fridge has broken and you need to get a new one), WINZ might tell you where you have to buy it from. In some situations, WINZ might not give you the money at all but will pay it directly to whoever you’re buying it off.
WINZ can refuse you an advanced payment or tell you to do a budgeting course before providing you with an advance payment. Find out more here.
If your problem is more ongoing than just needing help with a one-off expense, you might need to get temporary additional support. You might be eligible for this weekly payment if your basic expenses are more than your income and you can’t get any other benefit. If this is granted to you, you’ll receive it for up to 13 weeks. You and your partner have to do everything that you can to reduce your costs and increase your income during this time.
You can find out more about temporary additional support on the WINZ Temporary Additional Support website.
You can get up to $300 to help with the cost of emergency dental treatment (e.g. tooth extraction). This money is normally paid directly to the service provider, and you don’t have to pay it back. You don’t need to be already on a benefit to apply for this.
More about this, including the eligibility criteria, is on the Work and Income website.
To get Assistance to Transition into Employment you must be at least 16, and be looking for a job, starting a job, or be between jobs. You may have to satisfy a cash-asset test and income test. You can get help with writing your CV and also you might be able to attend free courses to help you find a job more easily. You can also receive up to $1,500 in a 12-month period to pay for the following costs: