More Financial Mentorship Clients Are Asking for Help With Hardship Withdrawals Than First Home Withdrawals

More financial mentorship clients are asking for help with hardship withdrawals than first home withdrawals. Financial mentors are spending almost half their time working on Kiwisaver hardship withdrawals, as more people struggle to make ends meet. Financial mentorship charity FinCap's latest Voices report showed one in eight clients were seeking help for a Kiwisaver hardship application.

On average, senior policy advisor Jake Lilley said 40 percent of mentors' time was spent with those clients. He told Checkpoint more clients were asking for help with hardship withdrawals than first home withdrawals. "Most people when they see a financial mentor are looking to get on top of some debt, or make sure they can keep getting their hands on the essentials, and you can imagine they're in hot demand at the moment, he said.

"What we're seeing in our report is because it's extremely difficult to add things up at the moment, there's a lot more need for mentors. Lilley said more people seemed willing to ask for help. "We are seeing some positive things around people presenting earlier and asking for help, because it's quite a big step to ask for help with money, there's a lot of stigma out there, he said.

He said many clients were struggling to pay for their housing. "People are really just trying to hold onto their rental, or their housing however they get it, they're increasing their spending there and cutting back on the essentials like food or petrol, public transport spending, Lilley explained. "Cutting back on how much power they use as well which is really concerning to us, we had done some reports a few years ago that established a lot of people weren't heating their homes at all when they see a financial mentor as well.

He said the high demand, and the complexity of seeking a hardship withdrawal, meant financial mentors were spending a lot of time on the issue. "There's a mix of ways you go through a hardship application for Kiwisaver across the providers, and still hearing from mentors some frustration around it being quite inconsistent, he said.