What is the Age Pension?
The Age Pension provides a safety net for people unable to adequately provide for their financial needs in retirement. There is a primary age-based criteria to eligibilty. The Age Pension ensures that qualifying people have sufficient income to meet basic living expenses. The Age Pension eligibilty criteria doesn’t judge how the pensioner arrives in this position.
This is a government-funded income support benefit distributed through Centrelink. This is the social welfare agency administered by the Commonwealth Department of Human Resources.
At what age do you become eligible for the Age Pension?
Males: To qualify for the Age Pension, must be aged 67 years or over.
Females: Since January 2024, the same age entitlement will apply to both males and females.
Changes in the legislation in Labor’s 2009 Federal Budget, lifted the Age Pension age to its current level, 67.1
As from 1 July 2017 the eligible age to become entitled to Age Pension is shown in the table below. Depending on your birthdate, from 1 July 2017 age pension age will be 65 years and 6 months. After that, age pension age will go up 6 months every 2 years until 1 July 2023.
| If your birthdate is | you’ll be old enough at |
| 1 July 1952 to 31 December 1953 | 65 years and 6 months |
| 1 January 1954 to 30 June 1955 | 66 years |
| 1 July 1955 to 31 December 1956 | 66 years and 6 months |
| From 1 January 1957 | 67 years |
Who can receive the Australian Age Pension?
A person claiming the Age Pension must be in Australia; and be 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 in Australia for 10 years without a break,
- Have lived in Australia 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.
How does Centrelink decide who is eligible for a pension?
A person’s Age Pension entitlement is calculated by Centrelink after applying an income and asset test. The amount of Age Pension a person will receive is the lower of the entitlements calculated by reference to these two tests. The Centrelink rules provide specific definitions of assets and income and it is important that these rules are understood before applying.
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 2 depends on your marital status and whether you own a home), your pension entitlement will reduce by $1.50 per fortnight.
For example, at the time of writing a homeowner couple can have assets of up to $891,500 3 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). As mentioned above, this is reduced by application of either the income or asset test, whichever results in the lower entitlement. For updates to these amounts (which occur on 20 March and 20 September each year), refer to the relevant Centrelink website page and click on the ‘Payment Rates’ under the ‘Eligibility tab on the left-hand menu.
Can a financial planner help me?
Whilst there are many situations where financial planners can provide help in these matters – and should be involved if you have assets and/ or income that could be ‘restructured’ in advance of making the application to Centrelink for the Age Pension, you should be aware that they do provide a service whereby eligibility and benefit entitlement can be determined.
By engaging an experienced adviser from Continuum Financial Planners Pty Ltd well in advance of needing to apply to Centrelink, your affairs may be able to be structured to ensure that you obtain the greatest Age Pension benefit entitlement, without risking long wait-out because of gifting and deeming events.
Our team works to the mantra that –
‘we listen, we understand; and we have solutions’
that we deliver
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To arrange an appointment with one of our experienced advisers –
- phone our office on 07-34213456; or
- at you convenience, use our linked Book A Meeting facility.
1 – Subsequent governments have proposed changes that are reflected in the Table shown. Readers should check that this is still current by going to this link on the Centrelink website.
2 – The thresholds are tabled in the article Income & Assets Test, linked above in this section (i.e., go to Centrelink website page and click on the ‘Payment Rates’ under the ‘Eligibility tab on the left-hand menu).
3 – This amount is indexed twice annually – in March and September: for the latest amount, visit the Centrelink website payment rates page.
(This article was originally posted by us in February 2010. We occasionally refresh/ update it, most recently in June, 2025.)
