Age Pension & Government Benefits
Age Pension
A fortnightly income support payment from Centrelink for eligible older Australians who have reached Age Pension age (currently 67). It's means-tested - i.e. the amount you receive depends on both your income and the value of your assets, not just whether you're over a certain age.
Centrelink runs two separate calculations to work this out:
- The income test - assesses income from all sources (employment, investments, super, etc). For financial assets like shares and managed funds, Centrelink uses deeming: rather than looking at what you actually earned, it assumes your financial assets return a set rate regardless of actual performance. This closes the obvious loophole of holding growth assets and just not selling or drawing income from them to appear to have low income. Income test for Age Pension →
- The assets test - assesses the value of what you own (excluding your family home), such as super, savings, shares, and investment property. Assets test for Age Pension →
Whichever test produces the lower payment amount is the one that applies - which is why Canwi models both tests in your plan rather than just one, since either could end up being the binding constraint depending on someone's asset mix versus their income.
For official eligibility and payment details, see Age Pension on Services Australia. For more detail on how Canwi models the Age Pension in your plan - including rates, indexation, and how the income and assets tests are applied - see The Aged Pension in the Canwi Help Center.
Related terms
See it in your plan
Canwi models Australian tax, super, and pension rules so you can explore decisions like this in a full financial plan.