About & methodology

MyEligible is an independent benefits-navigation platform with a public-interest mission. In Aotearoa New Zealand, it provides a calm way to see which support programmes may be worth exploring, understand important interactions, and follow links to official information.

The public service is free for individuals. MyEligible may also work commercially with organizations through institutional pilots, integrations, licensing, and related services where offered.

Results and calculators are planning aids. Official eligibility and payment decisions are made by the responsible government agency.

Every programme published by MyEligible New Zealand links to an official government or legislative source. Those sources remain the canonical reference for rates, criteria, effective dates, and application processes.

We model eligibility from published rules, effective dates, agency guidance, and programme relationships. Deterministic rules are used where the source material supports them. When a material fact cannot be resolved from published rules or from your answers, we say so plainly instead of guessing.

Programme names, administering agencies, official URLs, verification dates, and review dates are tracked in the New Zealand programme registry. A review date means MyEligible checked the programme against its source on or around that date. It does not guarantee the source has remained unchanged since then.

MyEligible also monitors source and policy changes where structured monitoring is available. Automated signals are treated as prompts for review, not as proof that a programme rule changed. Material changes still require verification against the responsible official source before MyEligible updates its reasoning.

If you spot a mismatch with an official page, please tell us so we can investigate and correct it.

MyEligible was already built around official sources, explainable rules, accessibility and plain language. We reference the projects below because they offer useful New Zealand-specific examples of public-interest service design, policy modelling, human support and cross-agency navigation.

None of the organisations below partnered with, endorsed, or contributed to MyEligible. Links are provided so you can explore the original work.

• OpenFisca Aotearoa

  Why we reference this

  • We reference this work because it shows how New Zealand social security legislation can be expressed as transparent, testable rules rather than opaque spreadsheets.
  • Its rules-as-code model is useful to study for separating legislative logic from presentation and keeping policy modelling reproducible.
  • Publishing legislative assumptions openly is a distinctive benchmark for how a benefits engine can stay auditable.

• BenefitMe and the Digital Aotearoa Collective

  Why we reference this

  • We reference BenefitMe as a practical NZ example of translating Social Security Act rules into a public-facing digital navigator.
  • Its implementation is useful to study for trust, ongoing rule maintenance, and where to explain uncertainty rather than overclaim.
  • It highlights navigation challenges specific to Aotearoa that a generic benefits directory cannot assume away.

• Citizens Advice Bureau New Zealand

  Why we reference this

  • We reference CAB because it shows where deterministic rules stop and a human-help handoff remains necessary.
  • Its model clarifies when legal rights, advocacy, budgeting, or local context exceed what a benefits engine should try to answer.
  • Many people bring problems broader than programme eligibility; CAB illustrates the breadth of real-world needs alongside benefit questions.

• SmartStart and the Service Innovation Lab lineage

  Why we reference this

  • We reference SmartStart as a NZ example of organising government services around life events rather than agency structure.
  • Its cross-agency service design is useful to study for reducing the burden on users to know which department owns a service.
  • The Financial Help Checker is a useful comparator for which mainstream programmes belong in a first-pass directory.

MyEligible recognises Māori as tangata whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand and the enduring importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We aim to use te reo Māori, Māori names, and official place names accurately and respectfully.

MyEligible is not affiliated with or endorsed by any government agency, political party, or civic-tech project listed on this page.

We do not use logos from other organisations without permission. Programme descriptions are written in our own words and checked against official sources.