Welfare agencies are urging the Federal Government to find a solution to a growing problem of New Zealanders finding themselves destitute in Australia.

Agencies say New Zealanders are not eligible for welfare benefits and some are resorting to begging.

Tony Keenan from Hanover Welfare Services in Melbourne says it is a growing national problem.

"I think most Australians are surprised to learn that New Zealanders are not eligible for benefits," he said.

"What we see are Kiwis are turning up to our services with no means of support.

"It is a national trend. I know that recently in Brisbane, where they did a survey of people sleeping rough on the street, 16 of those people in inner Brisbane were New Zealanders who were sleeping rough because they had no means of support."

Mr Keenan says sometimes the best solution is to pay to send them home.

"It doesn't happen a lot but we have seen an increase over the last number of years," he said.

"If a Kiwi or Kiwi family has support back home, it's much cheaper for us, and probably a better outcome for the people, to fly them home than to keep supporting them here."

But Mr Keenan says charities cannot continue to shoulder the costs and that the Australian and New Zealand governments need to work together to address the problem.

"Certainly the current situation where it's left to charities to use their scarce, fund-raised dollars to support people is not viable," he said.

"And it's also expensive in the long term for governments.[People] end up getting sick, they end up using emergency services at hospitals, and I think both the Australian and New Zealand governments need to find a solution to this."

Major Brendan Nottle from the Salvation Army in Melbourne says the organisation has helped about 40 people from New Zealand recently.

He says they seem to be getting a misleading message about opportunities in Australia.

"They come with this understanding from somewhere that it's easy to get cheap rental accommodation and employment," he said.

"When they get here they find that that's definitely not the case and we've had most of that 40 turn up at our centre in really difficult circumstances."

A spokesman for the Department of Immigration said as long as the New Zealand citizens were not in Australia illegally, the department had no stance on the issue.