Calculator
Age Pension Calculator
Age Pension Calculator
Your principal home is exempt from the assets test if you own it.
Super balances generally count once you reach Age Pension age. These assets are also deemed to earn income at Centrelink's set rates.
Settings used: maximum $1,149.00 single /$1,732.40 couple combined per fortnight (incl. supplement); assets taper $3 per $1,000 above the lower threshold; income free areas $204 single /$360 couple per fortnight; deeming 0.25% then 2.25%. Indexation applies each March and September.
Estimated Fortnightly Pension
$561
Pension Analysis
The assets test binds: your $510,000 of assessable assets cut the payment by $588 per fortnight, leaving $561 (the income test would have allowed $1,080.37). Each $1,000 of assets above the lower threshold costs about $3 a fortnight — so spending down super into your home, or gifting within the $10,000-a-year / $30,000-five-year limits, directly lifts the pension.
*Estimates use 2024-25 Centrelink maximum rates, thresholds and deeming rates, which are indexed each March and September. Excludes Rent Assistance and assumes no gifting, trusts or complex income streams. Confirm actual entitlements with Services Australia. Educational only.
The Safety Net Beneath Every Australian Retirement Plan
The Age Pension is Australia's government-funded retirement income: paid from general taxation rather than an accumulated balance, it guarantees eligible Australians a base income of roughly $1,149 a fortnight for singles and about $1,732 combined for couples, including supplements. Unlike superannuation, entitlement depends on two means tests — what you own and what you earn — plus reaching pension age, currently 67. Around two-thirds of Australians over pension age receive some pension, which is why every serious retirement plan treats the Age Pension as a floor, not a footnote. The means tests make the system surprisingly strategic. The assets test exempts your principal home entirely while counting super, shares and bank balances above generous thresholds; the income test applies deeming rates that assume a standard return on financial assets regardless of what they actually earn. Whichever test reduces the payment more wins — and small structural decisions, like where money sits between home improvements and liquid investments, can shift the outcome by thousands per year. This calculator applies both tests with current settings so you can see your likely entitlement, which test binds, and how far you sit from the cut-offs that define the retirement safety net.
Two Tests, One Payment — the Lower One Applies
The assets test starts from everything except your home (if you live in it): financial accounts, super for people of pension age, cars and contents. Assets below the lower thresholds — $314,000 single homeowner, $470,000 couple homeowner — attract the full pension; above that, the payment falls by $3 per $1,000 per fortnight until it hits zero at the cut-offs around $695,500 single and $1,045,500 couple. The income test assesses employment and rental income plus deemed income from financial assets: Centrelink assumes the first $62,600 (single) earns just 0.25% and everything above 2.25%, whatever the account actually pays. Assessed income under $204 a fortnight (single) leaves the full rate untouched; beyond that the pension falls by 50 cents per dollar until the cut-off near $2,385. The pension paid is simply the lower of the two test results, then indexation adjusts maximum rates twice yearly. The design creates the famous incentives: spending on an exempt home is rewarded over holding cash, gifting beyond $10,000 a year is penalised as deprivation, and account yield chasing does nothing because Centrelink deems, not inspects.
Expert Insights
Your Home Is the Pension System's Biggest Lever
Because the principal residence is exempt from the assets test while every bank dollar counts, capital that flows into the family home stops hurting entitlement. A retiree who spends $100,000 renovating instead of keeping it in term deposits lifts their pension by up to $3,900 a year under the assets test — permanently. That asymmetry explains why Australian retirees pour wealth into property late in life: within this specific ruleset, it is genuinely rational. It also means renters face harsher effective limits, since non-homeowner thresholds are higher but rent assistance only partly compensates.
Deeming Makes Account Yield Irrelevant to Your Pension
Centrelink assumes your financial assets earn 0.25% up to the threshold and 2.25% above — no matter what they actually return. Move $200,000 from a 4.75% bonus saver to a 1% account and your pension does not move a cent; the deemed income stays identical. The practical consequence cuts both ways: there is no penalty for investing well inside super or shares, and no reward for parking money in low-rate accounts to look poor. Optimise for real after-tax returns and let the deeming assumption do its own work.
Timing Is Everything Around Pension Age
Super balances generally escape the means tests before you reach Age Pension age but count once you do, which makes the years either side of 67 uniquely powerful for planning. Strategies range from starting an account-based pension and restructuring withdrawals, to spending down or gifting within the $10,000-per-year / $30,000-five-year limits before assessment day. Couples gain another dimension: one partner's age can let income streams be structured so the younger partner's super stays exempt longer. Get advice in the window — the ordering decisions are close to irreversible once assessments begin.
Actionable Tips
- 1
Count Your Assessable Assets the Way Centrelink Does
Before estimating anything, list what actually counts: bank accounts, shares, super (at pension age), caravans, boats and contents — often assessed at market value, not replacement cost. Exclude your home if you live in it, funeral bonds within limits, and personal effects. Most first-time estimates go wrong by miscounting contents or forgetting that super switches from exempt to assessable at pension age, so build the list from Services Australia's own categories rather than memory.
- 2
Use Gifting Rules Deliberately, Never Accidentally
You may gift $10,000 per year and $30,000 per rolling five years without penalty; amounts beyond those limits keep counting as financial assets for five years anyway — the worst of both worlds. If helping children with deposits, plan the gifts across years deliberately and document them. The same logic applies to loans: informal family loans still count as your asset unless properly documented with real repayment terms, a detail that regularly surprises retirees at claim time.
- 3
Recheck Every March and September
Rates and thresholds index twice yearly, and your entitlement moves with them even when your situation stands still. More importantly, your own numbers drift — super returns accumulate, term deposits mature into assessable accounts, and part-work income varies. Set a six-monthly reminder to rerun this calculator with updated figures. Part-pensioners especially should recheck, because crossing back under lower thresholds restores not just dollars but Commonwealth concessions like the Pensioner Concession Card's health and utility discounts.
Real-World Examples
Helen Turned a Term Deposit Into a Renovation and Full Rate
Helen retired at 67 with $520,000 in super and savings, facing a steep assets-test reduction. After advice, she spent $80,000 on the kitchen and bathroom she had deferred for years, leaving roughly $430,000 assessable. The renovation lifted her fortnightly pension materially — money she would have spent eventually anyway now bought her an extra ~$240 a fortnight, permanently. Her daughter called it gaming the system; Helen called it finally understanding the rules she had paid taxes into for four decades.
The O'Neills Discovered Deeming Doesn't Punish Good Investing
Bill and Carol kept their entire super in a 'conservative' 2% cash option specifically to reduce their income test exposure. Their adviser showed them the truth: Centrelink deemed their financial assets identically regardless of the fund's actual earnings, so the cautious allocation was costing them real returns while saving nothing. They moved to a balanced growth option inside super, kept their pension entitlement identical, and added tens of thousands of expected long-run value purely by understanding one rule.
Sam's Timing Play Before 67
Sam retired at 64 with most of his wealth in super — exempt from means testing at his age. Rather than withdrawing early for a caravan, he drew minimally, lived on taxable savings that ran down his assessable financial assets, and waited. At 67, his super remained large but his other assets had fallen enough that his part-rate pension started meaningfully higher than a naive estimate. Three patient years of structuring were worth more than any account switch he could have made.
Glossary of Terms
- Means Test
- Centrelink's method of scaling payments to your circumstances. For the Age Pension, the assets test and income test run separately and the more restrictive result determines what you are paid.
- Deeming Rates
- Assumed rates of return (currently 0.25% and 2.25%) that Centrelink applies to financial assets for the income test, regardless of what the investments actually earn.
- Asset-Free Area / Principal Home Exemption
- The rule excluding your principal place of residence from the assets test while you live in it — the reason home spending reduces assessable assets while bank balances do not.
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Ivy Sinclair-Wren
Financial Chaos Analyst
Ivy Sinclair-Wren is a Financial Chaos Analyst covering investing, AI, wealth psychology, and the emotional consequences of opening finance apps during market crashes. Based in Melbourne, she specializes in demystifying the Australian tax code and helping users navigate the intersection of spreadsheet logic and human irrationality.