Age Pension

The Age Pension is a safety net for older people who are not able to fully provide for themselves in retirement. This is to ensure that these people have enough income to meet basic living expenses.

To qualify for the Age Pension, a male must be aged 65 years or over. Depending on their date of birth women will qualify at different ages. Due to changes in the legislation in 2009 budget the Age Pension age will be lifted to 67. This will be phased in between 2017 and 2023. As such both men and women qualify for the pension at different ages as shown in the table below:

The person claiming the Age Pension must be in Australia and an Australian resident. Generally a person qualifies if they have always lived in Australia, or if they are, or were a refugee.

A person who has lived overseas can also qualify if they:

• Have lived here for 10 years without a break,
• Have lived here for at least 5 years continuously and have, in total, lived in Australia, on or off, for more than 10 years,
• Have a qualifying residence exemption (i.e. they are, or were, a refugee),
• Are a woman who was widowed here, and both she and her partner were Australian residents at the time, and she has lived in Australia for two years immediately before the claim, or
• Was getting Widow B pension, Widow Allowance, Partner Allowance, or Mature Age Allowance immediately before reaching Age Pension age.

A person’s Age Pension entitlement is calculated by Centrelink after applying an income and asset test. The test that produces the lowest entitlement will determine the amount of Age Pension a person will receive. The Centrelink rules provide specific definitions of assets and income and it is important that you have an understanding of these rules.

Important Note: From 20 September 2007, the asset test has been adjusted such that for every $1,000 of assets in excess of the threshold (your threshold depends on your marital status and whether you own a home), your pension entitlement will reduce by $1.50 per fortnight.

For example, a homeowner couple can have assets of up to $891,500 outside the family home and still receive some age pension.

How much pension do I get?

The maximum rate of age pension is $575.80 per fortnight for a single person and $478.90 per fortnight (from 1 July 2009 to 20 September 2009)for each qualifying member of a couple (these figures include pharmaceutical allowance). This is reduced by either the income or asset test, whichever results in the lower entitlement.