The future of superannuation is under the microscope four months out from the election, with National signalling raising the eligibility age will be back on its campaign agenda.
Currently, all eligible residents aged 65 and over can get the Government-funded pension. There are currently an estimated more than 960,000 people getting super, costing $24.7 billion this financial year, according to government figures. But as our population continues to age, that number is forecast to rise to $31.2 billion by 2030.
As questions continue to swirl around the sustainability of superannuation, could the end to pension tension be lifting the eligibility age to 67?
In a 1News Verian poll, 1001 eligible voters were asked what they believed the Government's top priority should be, with options including: keeping the eligibility at 65; reducing or removing payments for people with higher incomes or assets; gradually increasing the eligibility age from 65 to 67; or didn't know/preferred not to say.
Just under half of eligible voters thought the Government's top priority should be keeping NZ super eligibility unchanged. (Source: 1News)
Under half (44%) of eligible voters thought the Government's top priority should be keeping NZ super eligibility unchanged. The rest were split between reducing or removing payments for people with higher incomes or assets (25%) and gradually raising the eligibility age from 65 to 67 (26%). The remaining 6% said they were unsure or preferred not to say.
Voters who were more likely than average to think the Government should keep the eligibility unchanged are Pacific peoples (59%) and Asian peoples (54%).
Those more likely than average to support reducing or removing the payments for people with higher income or assets were Green Party supporters (37%) and people living in Wellington (36%).
Voters who were more than likely than average to support gradually increasing the eligibility age from 65 to 67 were ACT Party voters (56%), women aged 70-plus (47%), National Party voters (46%), men aged 50-plus (44%), and New Zealand Europeans (32%).
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the poll's findings suggested that "now a majority of New Zealanders think some sort of a change is needed to superannuation settings".
"What that tells me is that there's growing awareness of the sustainability challenges that exist for superannuation," she said.
While National signalled a change would be needed, other parties weren't convinced.
"At 5%, it's half of the problem the most countries around the world got," NZ First leader Winston Peters said.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party had been "very clear" that superannuation would remain at 65, adding that they "don't support means testing".
Age Concern chief executive Karen Billings-Jensen called for cross-party agreement to give seniors certainty.
"They need to know what to expect, when to expect it," she said.
But Billings-Jensen highlighted the risks of increasing the age to 67.
"We know that not everyone gets to 65 in great shape, depending on the type of work that they might have done. So actually, we also know there's a lot of ageism in the workforce and that people are ageing out of work or the work that they've traditionally done."
Between June 13 and 17, 2026, 1001 eligible voters were polled by mobile phone (500) and online, using online panels (500). The maximum sampling error is approximately ±3.1%-points at the 95% confidence level. This is the sampling error for a result around 50%. Results higher and lower than 50% have a smaller sampling error. For example, results around 10% and 5% have sampling errors of approximately ±1.9%-points and ±1.4%-points, respectively, at the 95% confidence level. These sampling errors assume a simple random sample of 1000 eligible voters.
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