Your Last Fortnight: The Redundancy Checklist
The last fortnight has a fixed order: check the final pay calculation, tell any insurer, lodge the Work and Income application before the last day so the stand-down starts, keep KiwiSaver hardship for last, and get the reference and the paper while the manager is still your manager. This guide is that order, with the figures behind each step.
Money: the final pay and the tax on it
Your final pay has parts, and each part is worked out differently. Outstanding wages to the last day. Notice, either worked or paid in lieu, which Employment New Zealand says must be given and paid unless both parties agree to waive it. Annual leave paid out at the rate the Holidays Act requires. And any redundancy compensation your agreement provides. Ask for the calculation in writing before the last day, because errors are common and much harder to fix once you have left and the payroll contact has moved on.
The redundancy compensation is taxed as an extra pay. Inland Revenue's method adds up your pay for the four weeks ending on the payment date, multiplies it by 13 to annualise it, adds the lump sum, and applies one rate to the whole payment from the extra pay table. For a redundancy payment the rate is the column without the ACC earners' levy, because the levy does not apply to redundancy payments: 10.5 percent up to $15,600, 17.5 percent to $53,500, 30 percent to $78,100, 33 percent to $180,000 and 39 percent above. KiwiSaver deductions are not made from redundancy payments. Student loan deductions are, at 12 percent, if you have a loan.
Check the final payslip line by line against the written calculation, and keep it. Work and Income, an insurer and the next employer's payroll may all ask for it, and it is the record of the tax already paid if the extra pay pushed your year into a different position at year end.
Cover: tell the insurer before the last day
If you hold any policy with a redundancy benefit, usually an optional add-on to income protection or mortgage repayment cover, notify the insurer before your last day, because the waiting period runs from the date the redundancy takes effect and claims need the employer's letter. The published policy wordings show why timing matters: under AIA's Living Personal Redundancy Benefit the waiting period is the greater of four weeks or the number of weeks your net redundancy pay could reasonably replace your net income, up to 13 weeks, and the benefit is paid monthly in arrears, so the first payment can be four months after the last day. Chubb's Assurance Extra Redundancy Cover has a four week waiting period and pays for up to six months.
Both wordings exclude voluntary redundancy, and both exclude a redundancy you knew or ought to have known about when the cover started, so a policy taken out after the proposal landed will not respond. AIA also requires that you were an earner for the six months before the redundancy and that you register with Work and Income or a recruitment agency and keep looking for work. Read your own wording for the details; the redundancy insurance guide in this series covers what these products do and do not do.
Employer-paid health insurance and group life cover usually end on the last day, often with a short window to convert to an individual policy without new medical underwriting. Ask the insurer, not the employer, what the window is and what the individual premium would be, and decide inside the window.
Income protection and life cover are hard to buy back later at the same terms, and a redundancy benefit already attached to a policy is worth more now than at any other time. Pause the decision until the first fortnight after the last day has passed.
Work and Income and KiwiSaver
Apply for Jobseeker Support on or before your last day. Under section 316 of the Social Security Act 2018 the stand-down of one or two weeks runs from the day after your employment ends, and payments start from the later of the day after it ends and the day Work and Income receives your application, so an application that arrives after the stand-down has run adds every day of the delay to the gap. Work and Income sets the length from your average weekly income before tax over the 26 or 52 weeks before you apply, using whichever gives you the shorter stand-down: for a single person with no children the threshold is $1,620.67 a week, and redundancy pay, holiday pay and pay in lieu of notice all count in the average. Payments are made weekly in arrears, so there is a further week after the stand-down before the first one arrives. The stand-down calculator in this series turns this into a date.
Have the documents ready: the redundancy letter with the last day and the reason, the final payslip, bank statements, proof of identity, rent or mortgage details, and your partner's income if you have one, because the higher earner's income sets the stand-down. Ask about the Accommodation Supplement and any other supplementary payments at the same time; many people never claim them.
KiwiSaver hardship comes last, not first. Schedule 1 of the KiwiSaver Act allows a significant financial hardship withdrawal only where the supervisor is reasonably satisfied that reasonable alternative sources of funding have been explored and exhausted, and the amount can be limited to what is needed to relieve the hardship. Providers ask for a statutory declaration and typically consider the shortfall over the next 13 weeks. Know the rules now; use them only once Work and Income, the bank and the redundancy payment have been worked through.
The application, on or before the last day. The Accommodation Supplement, at the same time. The KiwiSaver hardship form, only if the gap outlasts the payment, and the kiwisaver withdrawal guide in this series explains the cost.
Paper and access
Get the redundancy confirmed in writing before the last day, with the date, the reason and the calculation. Ask for a certificate of service and a written reference now, while the manager who knows your work is still your manager. Download your own payslips for the last year, your employment agreement, the restructure documents and any performance reviews, because the systems that hold them close on the last day and a request afterwards goes through a different department.
Move personal files off the work laptop and personal contacts out of the work mailbox, and only those; take nothing that belongs to the employer. Update the contact details that matter, your bank, Inland Revenue through myIR, KiwiSaver provider, and any professional body, from a personal email address. Note the date your work email stops forwarding, if it forwards at all, and tell the people who need to know.
The last item on the list is the tax code for the next job. Your final pay may put you on a different footing for the rest of the year, and the changing jobs guide in this series covers the tax code, KiwiSaver rate and student loan settings for the first payslip. Doing it in the last fortnight means the first payslip at the next place is right.
| When | Do | Keep |
|---|---|---|
| Day the notice arrives | Ask for the written calculation; note the last day; book advice if the process looks wrong | The notice and every version of the proposal |
| Same week | Notify any insurer with a redundancy benefit; ask about conversion windows on group cover | Policy schedules and the insurer's reply |
| Second week | Lodge the Work and Income application and ask about the Accommodation Supplement | The application reference and the documents you supplied |
| Before the last day | Certificate of service, reference, copies of payslips and agreements, personal files off the laptop | A folder with all of it, on a personal device |
| Last day | Check the final payslip against the calculation; confirm the leave and notice lines | The final payslip |
| First week after | Set the tax code and KiwiSaver rate for the next job; watch for the first Work and Income payment date | The IR330 you used and the payment date |
Related guides and tools
- Final Pay Explained, each line of the final pay and how to check it
- Jobseeker Support, who qualifies, the income test and how to apply
- Redundancy Insurance, what the add-on covers actually pay, and the exclusions
- KiwiSaver Withdrawal, the hardship rules and what a withdrawal costs at retirement
- Work and Income Stand-Down Calculator, the stand-down, the first payment date and the cash to bridge the gap
Test Your Knowledge
Ten questions on what to check, notify, lodge and keep in the last fortnight before a job ends.
Sources: Inland Revenue, calculate PAYE for a lump sum payment and taxing employee redundancy, read 3 September 2026; Work and Income, stand-down periods and how payments work, read 3 September 2026; KiwiSaver Act 2006 Schedule 1 clauses 10 and 11, read on legislation.govt.nz 3 September 2026; AIA Living Personal Redundancy Benefit policy wording 1113 AL-RED version 1 and Chubb Assurance Extra Redundancy Cover brochure CIG0015 V3, read 3 September 2026; Employment New Zealand, redundancy, last updated 26 November 2025.