On Monday, many people who live in New Zealand will get a payment of $116 from the government. This is the first instalment of the cost-of-living bonus announced in May. It is to help people who are suffering because of inflation. Inflation is when prices become more expensive and the cost of living increases.
The bonuses are being sent to New Zealand tax residents who earn $70,000 a year or less, are over 18, and do not get the winter energy payment. The winter energy payment is money given to people over 65 and people who get money from the government because they cannot work or cannot find work.
New Zealand’s tax department, The Inland Revenue Department, will pay the money into people’s bank accounts. If you are eligible for a payment, you should make sure that the IRD has your correct bank account number. If they do not have your bank account number, they will hold the money and wait until you give it to them. You can contact the tax department at this address.
The cost-of-living payment will be paid in three instalments, totalling $350 per person.
Vocabulary:
Instalment: one of a limited series of payments
Bonus: a one-off (only once) payment
Tax resident: someone who lives in New Zealand and has a tax number
Eligible: qualifying for
Hold: keep, wait
Hi, Many thanks for these. It is so good to have the news in a Kiwi accent and in slower, simpler English. I find these useful for lower level learners. In the one I am using today about the cost of living bonus form the government, there are a couple of uses of the passive voice that would normally appear in Upper Intermediate and Advanced learner’s grammar lessons. Would it be possible to grade the level of the English structures to keep texts at or below Intermediate level or is that not what your aim is, perhaps by keeping most in the active voice or not using the more unusual passive structures? Many thanks.
Thank you Melissa. can you tell me what level would you say this level is for.
This was a really useful article, and I used it on my first day of teaching a new class. They loved it!!!
Hi Pauline and Bridget, articles are written in clear English using high frequency vocabulary, avoiding idiomatic expressions, and the voice recordings aim to be slower than usual. I try to keep sentences clear-cut in their grammatical structure, but different teaching systems introduce grammar features at different stages, so it is difficult to grade texts to level.