Budget Day Basics 2026
By Phoebe Eden-Mann, National Policy Analyst, CCS Disability Action
Published 26 May 2026
Why does the Budget matter?
The Budget is what sets out the Government’s plan for the financial year ahead, as well as their estimates for the next few years. It tells us what the Government is prioritising, policy and spending-wise. The 2025/26 Budget key messages can be found here.
Budget Day is on Thursday 28th May 2026, and the documents are usually available from around lunchtime. They will be found on the Budget website which will be updated on the day with the 2026/27 budget documents.
There are several documents that are released on the day. These most important for everyday Kiwis are:
Wellbeing Budget
Estimates of Appropriations
The numbers paint the true picture
The summaries and descriptions in these reports may give you context, but what’s most important are the numbers. For example, in 2020, it was announced that there was an increase in disability funding, which was exciting! But when CCS Disability Action looked at the actual numbers, we discovered that the Government had in fact overspent in 2019, so simply had to allocate more money to make up the deficit.
The numbers will give you the facts without any spin.
To get to the numbers, go to ‘Estimates’, then select ‘By Vote’. The Votes are groupings of appropriations (these are the legal mechanism by which Government is allowed to spend money). The Votes are broken down into sectors.
Here are the key areas that are most relevant to disabled people and their families:
Learning Support (found in Education Vote)
Special Needs Intervention (found in Education Vote)
Early Intervention Services (found in Education Vote)
Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (found in Education Vote)
Training Incentive Allowance (found in Education Vote)
Disability Support Services (found in Social Development Vote)
Both Disability Allowances (found in Social Development Vote)
Supported Living Payments (found in Social Development Vote)
Community Participation and Vocational Services (found in Social Development Vote)
Residential-based Support Services (found in Social Development Vote)
Growing Disability and Accessibility Leadership and Advice for Disabled People (found in Social Development Vote)
Supporting Equitable Pay for Care and Support Workers (found in Social Development Vote)
National Disability Support Services (found in Health Vote)
Funding for Whaikaha Ministry for Disabled People (Found in Social Development Vote)
Keep calm, and dive into the figures
When you open the Vote Estimate, the key is don’t panic when confronted with the pages and pages of spreadsheets. It’s not as scary as it first appears.
At the top of each table are the years 2025/26 and 2026/27 (and in some tables there will be more years depending on how far into the future the funding projections are).
This means that the lines under the years 2025/26 are the numbers for the financial year just been, and 2026/27 are the numbers for the year ahead.
The four things you need to know are:
Final Budgeted means that was the final amount that was budgeted for that specific thing in the financial year just been.
Estimated Actual means the final amount they actually spent for that specific thing in the financial year just been.
Budget means the estimate that they will spend on that specific thing in the financial year ahead.
$000 means whatever the number is in the table, add $000 onto the end of it. For the Budget we’re working in the multiple millions of dollars, so if something says “Estimated Actual $000: 7,598” it really means the estimated actual spend was $7,589,000.
Sample analysis
Disability Allowance
For the year been (2023/24), the Government estimates it spent $312.6 million on the Disability Allowance (the Government had planned to spend $312.6 million). So, the Government spent the same amount as they planned.
For 2024/25, the Government plans to spend $316.7 million on the Disability Allowance. This is $4.1 million more than they spent last year. Again, increases in funding do not mean an increase in the allowance rate.
Here is that information in graph form:
Image description: Bar graph titled Disability Allowance. On the Y axis is the dollar amount in millions. On the X axis are six bars: Budgeted 2023/2024, Estimated Actual 2023/2024, Budget 2024/25, Estimated 2025/26, Estimated 2026/27, Estimated 2027/28. All are around 320 million.
And here is how it would appear in table form:
Image description: Table with a row for Disability Allowance and columns for Budgeted 2023/2024, Estimated Actual 2023/2024, Budget 2024/25, Estimated 2025/26, Estimated 2026/27, Estimated 2027/28. All are around 320 million.
CCS Disability Action’s analysis
We will be analysing the budget as soon as it’s released. We’ll be looking for trends from the past few years (you can find these on our website) to see if it’s gone up or down (or stayed the same).
I encourage you all to have a look for yourselves come Budget Day or keep an eye on the CCS Disability Action Facebook or LinkedIn page to hear what we and others in the sector think.