Photo: IGOR STEVANOVIC / SCIENCE PHOTO
The author of new research looking into the benefit of a kids' KiwiSaver scheme says if all children were enrolled from birth, they could have $10,000-20,000 in savings by the time they reach adulthood.
The report outlines several possible models, including a government kickstart and matching annual contributions to help children build savings from an early age.
Max Rashbrooke Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Max Rashbrooke, co-founder of the Institute for Democratic and Economic Engagement Analysis, told Morning Report that as a country we're not saving enough.
"We thought that an elegant but practical way to solve that problem, as well as building a savings culture and trying to improve the future prospects for our young people, would be to set up some kind of kids' KiwiSaver scheme.
"I think the core of it would be to imitate the things that have made KiwiSaver itself successful as much as possible," he said.
"So there'd be a kickstart for parents to start saving, maybe $1000. Then you'd have the government matching small amounts of parental savings."
Rashbrooke said there could be government contributions for those that couldn't afford to contribute to ensure no one missed out.
Six scenarios were modelled in the report with different levels of contributions from both the government and parents.
The first-year cost to the government ranged between $20 million to $80m across scenarios.
Rashbrooke said in 18 years the total savings could plausibly be somewhere around $10 billion to 13b in total.
There have been various attempts to introduce similar schemes around the world.
In the United States and Hungary there were "baby bonds", while the United Kingdom previously had "child trust funds".
Meanwhile, domestically Ngāi Tahu operates a matched savings scheme, Whai Rawa, which runs similarly to the proposed Kids KiwiSaver scheme.
As of early 2025, Ngāi Tahu's scheme has over 35,000 members and $165 million in funds under management.
Ngāi Tahu has contributed over $75m in matched savings, payments to newborns and annual distributions.
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