Budget 2025: What's in the pot for health, education, cost-of-living relief
Thursday, 22 May 2025
Just want the high level figures? Here are just a few.
How your money is being spent
(Expense forecast for 2025-2026, $150b)
Health: $32.7b
Education: $21.5b
Superannuation: $24.7b
Social security and welfare: $25.5b
Law and order: $7.3b
Transport and communications: $7.2b
Finance costs: $9.5b
Other: $21b
Savings: $5.3b
New spending: $6.7b
HEALTH
Read more on the Health budget here
The dollar signs
$7b increase in operating funding
An increase of $5.5b for hospitals and specialist services
$1b for health infrastructure
$1b for extra cancer treatments
Key initiatives
Increase prescription lengths to 12 months, from the first quarter of 2026 ($91m)
A major redevelopment of Nelson Hospital, to be built by 2029
A new emergency department at Wellington Regional Hospital
Auckland Hospital infrastructure
Palmerston North Hospital remediation
COST OF LIVING
Key initiatives
Increasing prescription lengths
Working for Families recipients get an average $7 a week extra
Lower teacher registration costs
Rates rebates for low-income SuperGold card holders
EDUCATION
The dollar signs
$2.5b of new spending over four years
Private school funding will increase by 11%, from $41m to $46.2m every year.
$946m for new classrooms and school property maintenance
$4m has been reallocated from charter schools
Key initiatives
Subsidies for private schools
Annual increase to teacher aide hours
Early intervention programme focussed on maths
School attendance uplift services
INFRASTRUCTURE
The dollar signs
$219m in extra operating funding for works on roads destroyed by Cyclone Gabrielle and Auckland Anniversary floods
An extra $200m-plus on Defence infrastructure, in addition to the $2b previously announced for replacing its ageing helicopter fleet
$605m on rail maintenance
$128m over four years for 550 more social homes in Auckland and up to $150m for Crown lending facilities for the Community Housing Funding Agency
JUSTICE
- More than $1b has been allocated for improving court processes, tackling organised crime, and increased prison capacity, among other things.
KIWISAVER
- The default KiwiSaver minimum contribution rate will rise from 3% to 3.5% to eventually 4%. The Government is halving its annual contribution to workers’ retirement savings. Read more here.
THE ECONOMY
- Treasury forecasts revealed today show a deterioration in the already bleak outlook for the Crown books.