Ask the person who lives with someone with Parkinson’s what they need and you will usually get a list about the other person — a rail in the shower, a better appointment time, something for the nights. Almost never a list about themselves.
New Zealand has a payment aimed squarely at that gap. It is called Carer Support, and Disability Support Services describes it plainly:
Carer Support provides reimbursement of some of the costs of using a support person to care and support a disabled person.
The point of it is not the other person’s care. It is that “your Carer can take some time out for themselves.” Checked in August 2026.
Who counts as a carer
The threshold is specific:
You are a full-time carer if you provide more than 4 hours per day of unpaid care to a disabled person.
Four hours a day of unpaid care is a much lower bar than most people assume they have to clear. Helping with dressing in the morning, cutting up food, being on hand during off periodsThe swings between periods when Parkinson's medication is working ("on") and periods when its effect has worn off ("off"), which become more abrupt as the condition progresses.Learn more, getting someone to the toilet at night — that adds up past four hours long before anyone in the house starts using the word “carer” about themselves.
Days, but really a budget
Carer Support is allocated by your NASC in days. It does not have to be spent as days.
Carer Support funding … can be treated as a budget for the whole year.
The arithmetic is days multiplied by a daily rate. Health New Zealand’s page gives the worked example: “If you have been allocated 25 days at a rate of $83 per day, your total available budget is $2075.”
Because it is a budget, it does not have to be broken into whole days off. A few hours at a time, used regularly, is often more useful than one 24-hour block a quarter — particularly for a household where the difficulty is spread evenly across every day rather than concentrated in one crisis.
What changed on 1 April 2026
Carer Support has been folded into the wider flexible funding rules alongside Individualised Funding, Enhanced Individualised Funding and hosted Enabling Good Lives personal budgets. DSS says “Carer Support is subject to the same purchasing guidelines as individualised funding (IF).”
Under those rules, spending must:
- “match the purposes in your funding plan”
- “relate to your disability and the support you need”
- “help you (or your carers) manage the impact of your disability”
It cannot be used for “drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling or illegal activities”, and it cannot be used for residential care — with respite care as the exception.
There are also limits on one-off purchases that depend on the tier of guidance your host provides: $1,500 for people in tiers 1 to 3, and $500 for people in tier 4, who receive the most frequent contact with their host.
The other change from early 2026 sits upstream of all this, in the assessment itself:
Family, whānau and carers’ needs may now be part of the assessment when their support is important to the disabled person’s needs and wellbeing.
That sentence is worth taking to your next assessment. It means the state of the person doing the supporting is now a legitimate subject of the meeting, not an aside at the end of it.
The problem is usually the nights
Respite is usually described as a break during the day. For households living with Parkinson’s, the thing that grinds people down is more often what happens between midnight and 6am.
- REM sleep behavior disorderREM sleep behavior disorder — acting out dreams during sleep, sometimes violently, often years before other Parkinson's symptoms appear.Learn more means shouting, kicking and thrashing during sleep. The person doing it is asleep. The person beside them is not.
- Nocturnal akinesiaDifficulty moving during the night — being unable to turn over in bed or get up, because the effect of the evening medication has worn off.Learn more means being unable to turn over, so someone else turns you — several times a night, every night.
- Getting to the toilet at 3am when the medication has worn off takes two people and fifteen minutes, and it happens more than once.
A person running on broken sleep for two years is not tired. They are being worn out in a way that a Saturday afternoon does not fix. That state has a name — care partner burnoutCare partner burnout — physical and emotional exhaustion from long-term caring, which builds slowly and is easy to miss until it is severe.Learn more — and it is the most common reason a household ends up in residential care earlier than it needed to.
DSS says “there are a range of respite options and services nationwide,” with region-by-region lists, and that “people can also use mainstream options for respite, in line with the purchasing guidelines.” So the options are not limited to a facility bed — but what counts has to fit the purchasing rules above, which is exactly the question to put to your host or NASC before you book anything.
Claiming, and the 90-day rule
Questions about the subsidy go to 0800 855 066 or carer_support@health.govt.nz.
Where Carer Support sits among the other options
| If you need | Look at |
|---|---|
| A few hours or days away from caring | Carer Support, allocated by your NASC |
| An overnight or longer break | Respite, also allocated by the NASC — ask specifically for overnight |
| Regular help so caring is lighter day to day | Home and community support — personal care and household management |
| To choose and employ your own support workers, including family | Individualised Funding |
| Income because you have had to stop work to care full-time | There is a Supported Living Payment route for full-time carers — see Supported Living Payment and Disability Allowance |
| A predictable weekday break because the person you support is isolated | Community day services, through the NASC |
If this applies to you
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You give more than four hours a day of unpaid care | You meet the definition of a full-time carer. Ask the NASC about Carer Support |
| You do not think of yourself as a carer | Count the hours, including nights. The test is hours, not how you describe yourself |
| You have Carer Support days but have never used them | They can be treated as a budget for the year. Ask your host or NASC what fits the purchasing rules |
| You do not know your daily rate | Ask for the number of days and the rate in writing. You cannot plan the year without both |
| You paid for respite three months ago | Check the date. Claims are to be sent within 90 days |
| The nights are the problem | Describe the nights, in hours, and ask specifically about overnight respite |
| Your assessment is coming up and you are the one who is exhausted | Carers’ needs can now form part of the assessment. Say what your week actually looks like |
| Your claim was rejected | Ring 0800 855 066 and ask what was wrong with the form. Most rejections are paperwork, not eligibility |
This page is not medical or legal advice and does not decide your entitlement. Purchasing rules changed on 1 April 2026 and the figures shown are examples published by the agencies, not your allocation. Confirm your own days and rate with your NASC.