Kiwis in Australia, Find Your Lost KiwiSaver and UK Pension

New Zealanders are the second-largest overseas-born group in Australia. The Australian Bureau of Statistics records over 600,000 New Zealand-born residents in Australia; under the Special Category Visa (subclass 444), Kiwis have lived and worked across the Tasman for decades, with Trans-Tasman mobility dating from the 1973 Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. Two cross-border retirement-savings problems repeatedly surface for this community: (1) KiwiSaver accounts opened during NZ employment and abandoned after the move to Australia, and (2) UK workplace pensions accrued during the classic NZ "OE" (Overseas Experience) in London, often forgotten 10–30 years later. The Pensions Policy Institute Lost Pensions Survey 2024 puts UK unclaimed pension pots at 3.3 million worth £31.1 billion in aggregate. A meaningful share belongs to Kiwis now in Australia.

This guide explains the cohorts, the Trans-Tasman Retirement Savings Portability Scheme, the NZ Superannuation position for Kiwis in Australia, and how PensionHunter traces both KiwiSaver and UK entitlements.

Three Kiwi cohorts in Australia with cross-border retirement footprints

PensionHunter cases fall into three broad cohorts. Inclusion is audience identification only, it implies nothing about entitlement size or entitlement value.

1. The classic Trans-Tasman cohort. New Zealanders who moved under SCV 444 from 1994 onwards for work in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth or regional mining and construction. Often hold dormant KiwiSaver accounts from NZ employment before the move, and frequently a UK workplace pension from an earlier OE in London.
2. The post-2023 direct-pathway-to-citizenship cohort. Kiwis arriving since 1 July 2023 under the simplified Australian citizenship route for SCV 444 holders. Mixed NZ KiwiSaver, UK workplace pension and Australian super footprints accumulated in parallel.
3. The professional / finance / consulting cohort. Kiwis in Sydney and Melbourne finance, Big 4 firms, tech and consulting roles, frequently with a London tenure in between, leaving UK workplace pensions behind with NEST, The People's Pension, Aviva, Legal & General or scheme-specific master trusts.

KiwiSaver, left behind in New Zealand

KiwiSaver is New Zealand's auto-enrolment retirement-savings scheme, launched 1 July 2007. Accounts remain in New Zealand when members move overseas. Default providers have included ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, AMP, Mercer, Fisher Funds, Milford, Booster, Generate and SuperLife, the default-allocation list has been updated periodically by the NZ government. Inland Revenue (IRD) holds the central register and operates a publicly accessible lost-members system. Members who have permanently emigrated to Australia have specific portability rights under the Trans-Tasman scheme set out below.

Trans-Tasman Retirement Savings Portability Scheme

The Trans-Tasman scheme has been operational since 1 July 2013. It permits voluntary transfers between:

• Australian APRA-regulated complying superannuation funds (not Self-Managed Super Funds), and
• New Zealand KiwiSaver schemes that are signed up to the Trans-Tasman arrangement.

Key technical points (informational only):

• Transfers are voluntary on both sides; neither fund is compelled to accept.
• The "New Zealand-sourced" portion of the transferred balance retains its country-of-origin tax treatment within the receiving fund.
• Australian SMSFs are not eligible to receive KiwiSaver transfers.
• KiwiSaver funds transferred to Australia cannot generally be accessed until the member meets the Australian preservation age and a condition of release, they do not become accessible under NZ KiwiSaver withdrawal rules.

PensionHunter does not advise on Trans-Tasman transfers. Decisions should be taken with an Australian AFSL-licensed financial adviser and a New Zealand Financial Advice Provider.

NZ Superannuation vs KiwiSaver vs UK State Pension

Three separate entitlements Kiwis in Australia frequently conflate:

• NZ Superannuation. Paid by NZ Ministry of Social Development to qualifying NZ residents from age 65. Under the NZ–Australia Social Security Agreement, NZ Super entitlements may be claimable from Australia subject to specific residency and proportional-payment rules administered jointly by Services Australia and MSD.
• KiwiSaver. Private retirement-savings account, not a government pension. Held by your KiwiSaver provider under your IRD number.
• UK State Pension. Paid by HMRC/DWP based on UK National Insurance contributions. For residents of Australia, the UK State Pension is frozen, Australia is not on the UK's reciprocal uprating list. The starting amount remains payable; it does not increase year-to-year.

PensionHunter focuses on UK workplace pensions and KiwiSaver tracing. We do not file NZ Super or UK State Pension claims; for those, contact the NZ Ministry of Social Development and the UK International Pension Centre directly.

The OE / UK workplace pension question

The UK has been the classic Kiwi OE destination for decades. Anyone who worked for a UK employer after October 2012 was almost certainly auto-enrolled in a UK workplace pension under the Pensions Act 2008. Common employers for the OE cohort include:

• Hospitality, pubs and restaurants across London and the Home Counties
• NHS locum and nursing agencies (eligibility for the NHS Pension Scheme via NHSBSA for clinical staff)
• City of London finance, Big 4 firms and Magic Circle law firms
• Education, recruitment, IT contracting and media employers

Even short-tenure UK jobs of three months or more typically generated NEST, The People's Pension or Smart Pension contributions that remain on the books.

QROPS to Australia, the current position

QROPS (Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Schemes) is the HMRC framework that permits a UK pension to be transferred to a recognised overseas scheme without triggering an Unauthorised Payment Charge of up to 55%. HMRC publishes the QROPS list on gov.uk and updates it twice monthly.

• Many APRA-regulated Australian super funds appear on the HMRC QROPS list, but the practical position for under-55s is restrictive: HMRC's QROPS conditions require the receiving scheme to restrict access before age 55, which clashes with Australia's preservation rules for younger members.
• The Overseas Transfer Charge (OTC) of 25% has been extended by HMRC policy announced at Autumn Budget 2024 and enacted in Finance Act 2025 (section 32) to apply to transfers to QROPS in the EEA and Gibraltar where the transfer was requested on or after 30 October 2024, closing the previous EEA / Gibraltar exclusion. Transfers to Australian QROPS remain subject to the general OTC framework, with the same-country-of-residence exemption potentially applying for Australian-resident members.
• ATO treatment of inbound foreign super transfers, including the "applicable fund earnings" calculation under ITAA 1997, is a separate question for a registered tax agent.

PensionHunter does not advise on transfers and is not regulated by the FCA, FMA (NZ) or ASIC (Australia).

Australian tax, informational only

This section describes the regime as published by the Australian Taxation Office and the relevant Double Taxation Agreements; it is not tax advice.

• Australian tax residents are taxed on worldwide income, including UK and NZ pension and KiwiSaver income, subject to the relevant DTAs.
• The UK–Australia and NZ–Australia Double Taxation Agreements allocate taxing rights over pension income; treatment of lump sums versus periodic payments needs case-by-case analysis.
• The "applicable fund earnings" treatment on transferred-in foreign super under ITAA 1997 requires a registered tax agent.

PensionHunter takes no position on Australian tax treatment. Direct these questions to a Tax Practitioners Board-registered tax agent.

What documents you need

• Full name and any previous names used in NZ and the UK (maiden name, anglicised spellings)
• Date of birth
• NZ IRD number if you have it (helpful for KiwiSaver tracing, not essential)
• UK National Insurance number if you have it (not essential)
• Names and approximate employment dates of NZ and UK employers
• Any historic KiwiSaver or UK pension statements, Annual Benefit Statements or scheme letters
• Current Australian address and contact details

A New Zealand or Australian passport is sufficient for identity verification, we do not require driver licences or other domestic IDs.

How PensionHunter works

PensionHunter is a research service combining human researchers with AI workflow. AI assists with employer-to-provider mapping, scheme identification and document drafting; our human research team prepares a complete information request for every UK scheme administrator and NZ KiwiSaver provider identified, written and ready for you to send under a signed Information Request Authority (IRA), and verifies every finding before it is reported back.

• Country Pension Identification Report ($99). Research across the UK Pension Tracing Service, the IRD KiwiSaver lost-members system, employer corporate succession, and the regulatory entitlement framework for your NZ and UK employment periods. Identifies likely scheme administrators and KiwiSaver providers for your direct enquiry.
• Enhanced Pension Identification Report ($499). Country Pension Identification Report plus expert manual follow-up. We prepare a complete request pack for each fund we identify, written and ready to send under your signed Information Request Authority (IRA). You send the requests and we answer your questions by email about whatever comes back, on your workplace and state pension alike, for as long as your case is open.
• Global Pension Identification Report ($799). Multi-jurisdiction search across all 27 PensionHunter countries with a complete request pack for each fund we identify.

Full report within five working days of your intake form. Full refund if we find nothing material. See our sample report and pricing.

PensionHunter is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (UK), the Financial Markets Authority (NZ) or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. We provide research and tracing services only. We do not give pension, investment, tax or transfer advice. All decisions remain with you, and we recommend taking independent regulated advice before acting on any finding.

Frequently asked questions

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax or pension advice. PensionHunter is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, the Financial Markets Authority (NZ) or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. Independent regulated advice is recommended before acting on any finding.

PensionHunter operates consumer pension search across 41 active countries, with worldwide expansion underway. We also trace lost pension members worldwide on behalf of pension schemes, funds and trustees, see /trustees.