Do you get paid to homeschool in New Zealand?

The official name is the Home Education Supervisory Allowance. It exists because the Ministry acknowledges that home educating parents take on what would otherwise be a school's responsibility. It is not a wage, and it will not cover curriculum materials or much else. For most families it pays for a few books, a resource subscription, or a term's worth of a sport or class.

The allowance is administered by MoE alongside the twice-yearly declaration process. If you do not return the declaration, you do not receive the payment for that period. There is no back-pay mechanism if you miss a cycle.

The amount depends on how many children you are home educating under the same exemption arrangement. The rates from the MoE policies document are:

These figures come from the MoE internal policies manual. They have not changed frequently, but MoE can adjust them. If you want to confirm the exact current rate before budgeting around it, contact your regional office directly.

If your child joins or leaves home education partway through a payment period, MoE calculates a pro-rata amount based on the days they were home educated within that six-month window. The allowance cannot be paid in advance.

MoE runs two payment cycles per year:

• June paymentCovers January to June. Declaration sent in March. Return it by the due date noted in the letter.
• November paymentCovers July to December. Declaration sent in August. Same process.

Payment goes directly to your bank account. When parents are not living together, it goes to the parent who is actually providing the home education. You do not need to fill out a separate application to begin receiving the allowance once your exemption is in place.

The declaration is a short form MoE sends you in March and August. Signing it is a statement that you are continuing to home educate your child as regularly and as well as in a registered school. Without a signed declaration returned by the due date, MoE will not release payment.

This is one of those administrative details that catches families off guard. The declaration arrives by post and can look like routine correspondence. If you miss a period, you cannot claim that payment retroactively.

Set a calendar reminder for March and August each year so it doesn't get buried in the pile.

The allowance begins once your exemption is approved and the next payment term starts. If your exemption is approved partway through a term, your first payment will be pro-rated from your start date.

The allowance stops when:

• Your child enrols at a registered school
• Your child turns 16 (unless you continue home educating and keep returning declarations, in which case it can continue until they turn 19)
• You stop returning the declaration
• Your exemption is revoked
• Your family moves overseas

One nuance worth knowing: if your child does a short trial at a local school, the allowance is affected by how long that trial runs. Trials up to about 10 school weeks can be accommodated without losing your exemption entirely, but it's worth contacting your regional MoE office before the trial starts so you know where you stand.

You cannot receive the allowance until your exemption is approved. Families who are still waiting for their certificate, or who have removed their child from school before the certificate arrived, are not eligible until the approval comes through.

This is another reason to get your application submitted as early and as cleanly as possible. The sooner the exemption is granted, the sooner the allowance begins, and part-period payments are calculated from the certificate issue date.