Te tono mō Working for Families Applying for Working for Families

There are 3 ways to register for Working for Families payments.

• Register in myIR.
• Complete our online form.
• Call us. We process your registration the same way we would if you used myIR or our online form.

If your child is a newborn you can register their birth, apply for an IRD number and apply for Best Start in SmartStart.

The length of time you’re eligible during the first year of Best Start will be reduced for each week of paid parental leave taken after the birth of the baby. So if you took 20 weeks of paid parental leave after the baby was born, you’d be eligible for 32 weeks of Best Start in the first year instead of 52 (since 32 is 52 minus 20).

If you want us to check if you're eligible for the other types of Working for Families payments, you'll need to provide further information to us once your Best Start application has been processed.

If you do not have a newborn you can register for Working for Families in myIR.

You do not need to apply again if you have had Working for Families payments in the past. It's easy to restart your payments in myIR.