Age Pension: how much can you have and still get it?

First: who qualifies

You can claim the Age Pension from age 67, if you've been an Australian resident long enough (generally 10 years). Centrelink then runs two tests — the assets test and the income test — and pays you whichever result is lower. Your family home doesn't count in the assets test while you live in it.

Full pension is currently about $32,180 a year for singles and $48,516 combined for couples (including supplements).

The assets test — what you can own

Everything except your home counts: super, savings, investments, cars, the lot. Between "full" and "cut-off" your pension reduces gradually.

	Full pension if under	Nothing once over
Single, homeowner	$333,000	$745,750
Couple, homeowner	$499,000	$1,121,000
Single, no home	$600,000	$1,012,750
Couple, no home	$766,000	$1,388,000

Worth knowing: a younger partner's super doesn't count while it's still in accumulation and they're under 67 — a real (and legal) sheltering rule.

The income test — what you can earn

Centrelink doesn't count your bank interest — it uses deeming: it assumes your savings earn a set rate whatever they actually earn. The first ~$66,800 (single) / ~$110,600 (couple) of financial assets is deemed at 1.75%, the rest at 3.75%.

Earning from a job? The Work Bonus ignores the first ~$300 a fortnight of employment income — you can keep working part-time and still get most or all of the pension.

Worked example: single homeowner with $450k in super

Centrelink runs both tests every fortnight and pays whichever gives the lower amount. Here's the whole maths for one person — figures are approximate, rates current for 2026–27:

Test	The maths	Pension it allows
Assets test	$450k is $117k over the $333k full-pension line. Pension drops $3/fortnight per $1,000 over → about $351/fortnight less.	~$880/fortnight ≈ $23k/yr
Income test (deeming)	First ~$66.8k deemed at 1.75% (~$1,169/yr), the other ~$383k at 3.75% (~$14,370/yr) → deemed income ~$15,500/yr ≈ $598/fortnight. After the ~$218/fortnight free area, the 50c taper cuts the pension ~$190/fortnight.	~$1,040/fortnight ≈ $27k/yr

The assets test gives the smaller figure, so that's what pays — roughly $23k a year on top of super, for someone well past the "full pension" line. Part pensions are bigger than most people expect, which is exactly why running your numbers matters.

See what you'd actually get — free

The tests interact: your age, partner's age, home, super and savings all change the answer — year by year, not just today. RetirePath runs both tests on your real numbers across your whole plan.