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Check Your Eligibility
Check Your Eligibility
Home / Eligibility / Eligibility criteria for family and dependants /

Eligibility criteria for family and dependants

Eligibility criteria for family and dependants

You may be able to get support if you're the spouse, partner, child or dependant of someone with Qualifying Service.

On this page
Check if you are eligible for support Support you may be able to get Which family members can get support

Check if you are eligible for support

The easiest way to check if you or your family and whānau are eligible is to use our "Check your eligibility" tool. It only takes a few minutes. 

Check your eligibility

Support you may be able to get

You may be eligible for support if a family member is injured by their Qualifying Service.

You, or family and whānau, may be eligible for:

  • services — including those under the Veterans’ Independence Programme 
  • financial entitlements — both one-off and regular payments.

Support available to family and whānau

Which family members can get support

Only family members with a direct connection to a person with Qualifying Service are eligible for support. The Veterans' Support Act 2014 sets out how we define who is a:

  • spouse or partner
  • child
  • dependant.

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How we define 'spouse' and 'partner'

We define a:

  • spouse as a person who is legally married to someone with Qualifying Service, and
  • partner as the civil union or de facto partner of someone with Qualifying Service.
How we define 'child'

We define a child to be, in relation to a person with Qualifying Service:

  • their natural child
  • their adopted child
  • the child of their spouse or partner, or
  • someone they have acted as a parent or guardian to, for example, a grandchild or whāngai.
How we define 'dependant'

We define a dependant to be someone who meets any of the following three circumstances.

Someone — not a spouse, partner, or child — who:

  • is under 18 years of age
  • is wholly or primarily dependent on a person with Qualifying Service for financial support, and
  • ordinarily resides with the person with Qualifying Service.

Someone — not a spouse, partner, or child — who:

  • is 18 years of age or older
  • is under the care of a person with Qualifying Service, and
  • ordinarily resides with the person with Qualifying Service because they are unable to live independently due to impairment, illness or advanced age.

Someone who:

  • is the child of a person with Qualifying Service
  • is 18 years of age or older
  • is under the care of the person with Qualifying Service, and
  • is unable to live independently due to impairment, illness or advanced age.

Eligibility

Related pages

Eligibility checker
Last Modified: 8 February 2023
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