safeguarding yourself against unemployment?
Hello all,
I'm trying to understand how the unemployment benefit system works in NZ. It seems to be quite different from the one over here. We were lucky to bag a job offer for OH following our recce to NZ 1,5 months ago, and are now waiting for the employer and NZIS do their communication and for the NZIS to process our application. The job is in Wellington, where we wanted to move in the first place, and the salary is reasonable for someone who hasn't worked in NZ before. Still, a quite a few of our friends around the world have lost their jobs during the past 18-20 months, and that has made us a bit cautious about the possibility of becoming involuntarily unemployed, especially with just OH working at first.
Over here, in case of involuntary unemployment, we could get 80% of our gross salary through voluntary insurance (through the union, the state benefit is a lot lower). I did a bit of googling, and it seems that the state benefit in NZ is under NZD 150 per week, and to my understanding we're not entitled to it or to any other benefits during the first 2 years (assuming that we get PR). I found plenty of insurances against prolonged illness or disability, but not that many against unemployment, and most of the insurance policies seemed to cover only mortgages. Since we'll be renting at first for at least a year, mortgage insurances wouldn't help. We have some savings, but would like to keep them as the last resort for moving back if everything goes pear-shaped in NZ. I am planning to find a job once we've made the move, but that could take months as I work in a fairly specialised field.
What can we do to safeguard ourselves against unemployment in NZ? What kind of unemployment insurance alternatives are there? I think we would need a policy that covers a certain percentage of salary if there are policies like that available. Thanks for any help!
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Originally Posted by peebles16
