People who are over the age of entitlement to NZ Super are contributing 15 percent of all personal taxes, data shows, but economists say even as that amount grows, it won't help balance the books.Data released under the Official Information Act showed there were 268,800 working superannuitants in the most recent tax year for which data was available, and 632,300 non-working.The working group paid $6.6 billion in tax on all income and $1.56b in tax on NZ Super.The non-working group paid $4.24b in tax on all income and $2.6b on tax on NZ Super.Across non-working and working superannuitants, they paid $9.84b in income tax in the 2024/2025 tax year. Of that, $4.166b was tax paid on super.Inland Revenue said the "working" group in 2024/2025 received $772 million more in net superannuation than they paid in income tax on their other earnings, to a net transfer of an average $2872 per person.For the non-working group, the figure was a net transfer of $19,018 per person on average.At the other end of the scale, 14 and 15-year-olds paid $9.9m in tax in the 2024/25 year, and $7.3m in progress data for the most recent tax year.Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said the amount of tax paid by older taxpayers was likely to continue to grow as more people stayed in the workforce longer.He said Stats NZ population projections were that the percentage of people aged 65 would rise from 16.5 percent in 2024 to closer to 19 percent in 2031 and just over 20 percent in 2036.Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold.Supplied / LinkedIn"There's more of them so, in principle, you've got the potential there for there to be more taxpayers. The other thing is that there has been a rising employment rate and participation rate of over 65s in the workforce."Since 2016, the proportion of the employment rate, so that's the proportion of over 65s that are in employment, has risen from 23 percent to around just under 27 percent ... that's a reasonably significant increase in the proportion of older New Zealanders that are actually working, presumably because perhaps the labour market's getting a bit easier for them relative to before. Maybe they need to work for longer. Maybe they just want to work for longer as well."He said, because New Zealand did not reduce a person's NZ Super entitlement if they were still working, there was not the disincentive to keep working that might be there in other countries.He said while young people's employment had dropped in recent years, that was likely to reflect the economic environment and would change again as it improved. Older people working were more of a structural shift, he said.Shamubeel Eaqub, principal economist at the New Zealand Institute of Economic ResearchSuppliedSimplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said some older people were working because they wanted to but others had little choice.But he said the net effect was still that over 65s consumed more in public services than they contributed in taxes.Treasury work showed children and people aged over 65 generally received more in government support than they paid in tax, while working age people paid more than they received.That would continue even as the number of working older people increased. "The sheer volume of people in those older and especially oldest age groups balloons the costs."Rising older people's participation in work and thus increased tax contributions via income tax and also GST - because they are likely to spend more - helps improve the revenue side of the ledger. Just not enough to fix the fiscal math - which still doesn't work."Eckhold agreed. "The reality is that even though there'll be more people working over 65, there will be a limit to when you can work to. And healthcare costs are rising … we're getting better treatments, more expensive treatments, people have higher expectations about what they can do now. So that all costs money."Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.