The 2025 Review of Retirement Income Policies recommends actions to take now
The 2025 Review of Retirement Income Policies has now been released. It identifies 12 recommendations to the Government for what can be done to ensure our retirement income system remains fit for purpose for all New Zealanders and prepare us for the future.
The review draws on a substantial body of research, and reflects the voices of older New Zealanders, the insights of experts and the values that underpin the retirement income system.
The recommendations in the review are designed to work together as a package, with targeted changes we can make now, such as improving KiwiSaver settings and extending support during parental leave, and reforms to strengthen long-term stewardship.
Download the full report below and read the media release here.
Research
Improving women's retirement income
Improving the retirement savings of the self-employed
Analysis of KiwiSaver changes: Budget 2025
KiwiSaver Government Contribution Distributional Analysis
KiwiSaver Employer Contributions Qualitative Report
KiwiSaver Total Remuneration Qualitative Report
Aotearoa New Zealand in 2050: preparing our retirement income policies for the future
NZIER Australia vs NZ comparison paper
KiwiSaver Employer Contribution Insights
Default contributions in retirement plans
Receipt of tier two and tier three benefits by the 65-plus population 2019–2023
Iwi managed investment/savings schemes
Policy Quarterly Vol. 21 No. 3 (2025): Special Issue: Retirement Income Policy
Research
Improving women's retirement income
Men’s KiwiSaver balances are on average 25% higher than women’s. This report, prepared for Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission by MartinJenkins, takes a life-course approach to understanding the key events and moments that contribute to the gap. The report identifies six critical stages where policy interventions could improve women’s retirement income outcomes and reduce that gap. The report should be read in conjunction with the accompanying journey map, which highlights and summarises the diversity of women’s experiences within each stage, the differences between women’s experiences and men’s, the effects of those differences for women’s retirement income, and the key policy levers that are available to address those effects.
Improving the retirement savings of the self-employed
This joint report from Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission and Hnry explores the growing disparity in retirement savings between self-employed New Zealanders and employees. Hundreds of thousands of self-employed New Zealanders risk retiring financially vulnerable - as they contribute to KiwiSaver at less than half the rate of employees, with many missing out on government contributions.
Analysis of KiwiSaver changes: Budget 2025
The Retirement Commission has provided a comprehensive summary of the recent changes to KiwiSaver, including an overview outlining whose KiwiSaver retirement savings can be expected to increase and whose decrease compared to what would have been expected if no changes had been made. The paper also provides a distributional analysis of the impact of the changes on retirement balances and how the changes may impact on retirement adequacy.
KiwiSaver Government Contribution Distributional Analysis
To assess the distributional impact of the government contributions, Inland Revenue provided the Retirement Commission anonymised and detailed data that would enable insights based on age, gender, income amounts, income types and geographic location for the tax years ended March 2022, 2023 and 2024. This report summarises the key findings from an analysis of the data.
KiwiSaver Employer Contributions Qualitative Report
This report presents findings from a qualitative study on employer perspectives regarding current and proposed changes to KiwiSaver contribution settings. The research involved 60-minute online in-depth interviews with 25 business owners and decision-makers representing a diverse range of industries and company sizes across New Zealand. Interviewing was conducted in March-April 2025.
KiwiSaver Total Remuneration Qualitative Report
The Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission commissioned research to analyze how the new KiwiSaver contribution rate policy might influence employer behavior when using a total remuneration model versus the traditional KiwiSaver contribution model. The study included in-depth, 60-minute online interviews with 15 employers from various industries and company sizes across New Zealand.
Aotearoa New Zealand in 2050: preparing our retirement income policies for the future
New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) was commissioned by Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission to explore what Aotearoa New Zealand might look like in 2050 and how retirement income policies may need to adapt. This report draws on existing projections from NZ Stats and Treasury and, in some cases, extends them to 2050 using simple linear prediction models but does not account for underlying drivers.
New Zealand will look quite different in 2050.
The population will be larger but growing more slowly than today. Due to a combination of declining birth rates and increasing longevity, the population will be much older, with about 50% more people over 65. The population will also be more diverse, with more Māori, Asian and Pacific Peoples. More people will be retired, and fewer will be available for work. Despite this, the economy could be more than 50% larger than it is today, due to the steady march of technological progress.
Assuming current settings do not change, government spending on NZ Super and health will be higher because more people will be retired. At the same time, there will be a smaller share of workers to fund government expenditure.
NZIER Australia vs NZ comparison paper
In preparation for the 2025 RRIP, NZIER, with support from Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission, analysed the performance of the New Zealand and Australian retirement income systems. Australia and New Zealand boast robust retirement systems, with Mercer recently ranking Australia’s as a B+ and New Zealand’s as a B – but with some areas for improvement.
In NZIER’s report, the schemes of both countries were evaluated against five criteria, with key findings as follows: Adequacy: New Zealand’s system appears to provide higher incomes relative to the working-age population on average. Equity: While New Zealand’s system reduces income inequality in retirement, Australia’s system perpetuates inequalities from working years. Sustainability: Government spending on the system is expected to increase over time in New Zealand but remain constant in Australia. Impact on savings and investment: Australia’s system has a larger effect on savings due to compulsory contributions and higher rates. Impact on labour and wages: Australia’s system discourages working at pension age, resulting in lower labour force participation.
Although both systems have their strengths and weaknesses, the comparison offers important lessons for New Zealand.
Older People’s Voices
To supplement research addressing specific Terms of Reference, the Retirement Commission also spent time speaking with a range of New Zealanders aged 65 or older, in particular focusing on their financial lives. The most recent project involved both qualitative interviewing and quantitative surveying nationwide. By segmenting the participants according to their underlying attitudes to money, we were able to gain a richer understanding of the financial lives of older New Zealanders and test the ‘golden assumption’ that over 65s today are mortgage-free couples living in relative comfort. Case studies and stories from participants involved in the focus groups and interviews are interspersed throughout the report to bring to life the experiences of older New Zealanders.
KiwiSaver Employer Contribution Insights
Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission worked with the New Zealand Policy Research Institute (NZPRI) at AUT to investigate employer KiwiSaver contribution patterns using Stats NZ’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI). The research focused on understanding more about the number and type of employers who contribute above the minimum rate of 3%, and employer contributions for those aged under 18 and over 65, as these two groups are exempt from the requirement for employers to make KiwiSaver contributions.
The research finds that only a small percentage of organisations are contributing above the minimum rate of 3%, however many more organisations make contributions for those under age 18 and over 65, even though this is not legally required. There are wide variations across industries as well as differences depending on the size of the organisation.
Default contributions in retirement plans
Drawing on more than 80 pieces of literature, spanning behavioural economics, choice architecture and policy design, in this paper, Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission examines how default contribution rates shape retirement savings behaviour. In exploring why defaults are so powerful and how changes to them affect saving outcomes, it becomes clear that ongoing monitoring, evaluation and research into Aotearoa New Zealand's recent KiwiSaver changes will be valuable in determining how government-set defaults influence saver behaviour over time.
Receipt of tier two and tier three benefits by the 65-plus population 2019–2023
As well as NZ Super, older people in Aotearoa New Zealand can access a number of other government transfers (benefits). This policy brief provides an overview of the trends for the receipt of these other benefits for the five-year period spanning 2019 to 2023. Results are presented by age, gender and ethnicity.
KiwiSaver Fund Types
This Policy Report explores how investment choices within KiwiSaver have evolved since the scheme’s inception. It highlights a major shift from conservative funds to more growth-oriented investments, especially following the 2021 change in the default fund type, aligning investments more closely with long-term retirement goals. The report also summarises findings related to fund type across age bands and gender using KiwiSaver provider data collated for the Commission by Melville Jessup Weaver (MJW) (the full MJW report is also available below).
Iwi managed investment/savings schemes
Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission engaged Ihi Research to undertake exploratory research underpinned by a Māori-centred paradigm to better understand the current landscape of Iwi Managed Investment Schemes and Iwi Savings Schemes with a particular focus on retirement.
Background papers
Background papers were prepared by the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment that provide an overview of changes to relevant policies and other developments since the 2022 RRIP to assist the Retirement Commission in compiling the 2025 RRIP.
Policy Quarterly Special Issue: Retirement Income Policy
This special issue of Policy Quarterly, guest edited by Patrick Nolan and Michelle Reyers from Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission, brings together research that helps us understand how retirement is evolving and how policy might respond. It contains nine articles on retirement income policy covering recent trends and the long-term outlook, the performance of KiwiSaver, iwi saving schemes, and approaches to income testing.