Winston Peters backs superannuation clampdown

Winston Peters.

Winston Peters is backing the Retirement Commissioner's proposal to tighten up on immigrants getting superannuation.

But he disagrees with her call to raise the pension age from 65 to 67.

Commissioner Diane Maxwell has proposed raising the residency requirement from 10 to 25 years before a person can get superannuation. The Government said it would review her recommendations.

The New Zealand First leader said his party had long called for the residency requirement to be increased.

Maxwell's raft of suggestions including increasing the residency requirement, raising the age of eligibility and resuming contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund were released as part of her three-yearly review of retirement policy.

At present people have to be resident in New Zealand for just 10 years after the age of 20, including five after the age of 50, to be eligible for NZ Super. But Maxwell wants it to increase to 25 years.

She said New Zealand's residency requirement for superannuation was the lowest in the OECD. The OECD average is 26 years.

As well as the residency increase, she has repeated a call to increase the age of eligibility from 65 to 67 but wants it done incrementally over an eight-year timeframe starting in 2027.

Peters took issue with her view that NZ Super was unaffordable, and said there was no need to increase the age.