How does the Age Pension work with super?

Last updated: 22 October 2026

Who can get the Age Pension?

Services Australia says you must be Age Pension age and meet some other rules. Age Pension age is currently 67. The other rules are residence, the income test and the assets test.

• Age. You must be 67 or older. Retiring earlier, or reaching your super preservation age, doesn’t bring this forward.
• Residence. On the day you claim you must be living in Australia, physically in Australia and an Australian resident (a citizen, a permanent visa holder or a protected Special Category visa holder from New Zealand). You generally need to have been a resident for at least 10 years in total, with at least 5 of those years in a row. Some people are exempt or covered by other rules, such as refugees and people covered by international social security agreements.
• Income and assets. Your income and your assets are each tested, as the rest of this guide explains.

Meeting the age and residence rules doesn’t mean a pension is payable. The two tests decide whether a full pension, a part pension or no pension is paid.

How does the Age Pension assets test work?

The assets test counts what you and your partner own: property and possessions you own in full or part, assets held outside Australia and debts owed to you. The limits depend on whether you own your home and whether you are single or a couple. For a couple, the limits apply to both partners’ assets combined, not to each person separately.

Assets test limits, as at 20 September 2026

Source: Services Australia, Assets test for Age Pension, with the part-pension cut-offs effective from 20 September 2026. Other situations have their own figures, including couples separated by illness, couples where only one partner is eligible, transitional-rate pensions and people who get Rent Assistance.

When assets are above the full-pension limit, the pension reduces. The Department of Social Services guide says the reduction is $3 a fortnight for every $1,000 of assets over the limit, for a single person or a couple combined (Social Security Guide 4.2.3). In the guide’s calculation, the assets over the limit are counted in $250 blocks (rounded down), so the reduction moves in small steps. For example, a single homeowner with assets $50,000 over the limit would have their assets-test pension reduced by $150 a fortnight ($3 × 50). That is only the arithmetic of one test; the income test is assessed separately, and the lower result applies.

How does the Age Pension income test work?

The income test counts income from all sources for you and your partner. That includes employment income and the income that financial assets such as savings, shares and super are treated as producing under the deeming rules. A free area of income doesn’t reduce the pension. Above it, the pension reduces until it reaches nil at the cut-off point.

Income test, standard rules, as at 20 September 2026

For a couple living together, the two incomes are added together. Once combined income is above $396 a fortnight, each person’s pension reduces by 25 cents for each $1 of that combined income over $396.

Source: Services Australia, Income test for Age Pension. These are the standard rules. Published cut-offs can vary: they can be higher for people who get Rent Assistance or the Work Bonus, and lower for some people who don’t live in Australia. Transitional-rate pensioners and some other situations have different rules.

For example, a single person with income $100 a fortnight above the free area would have their income-test pension reduced by $50 a fortnight (50 cents × 100). As with the assets test, that is only the arithmetic of one test.

What is deeming?

Deeming is how Services Australia works out the income from financial assets for the income test. It assumes the assets earn a set rate, whatever they actually earn. If an investment earns more than the deemed rates, the extra isn’t counted as income. The Minister for Social Services sets the rates.

• Single: 1.75% on the first $66,800 of financial assets, and 3.75% on the rest.
• Couple, where at least one partner gets a pension: 1.75% on the first $110,600 of combined financial assets, and 3.75% on the rest.

As at 20 September 2026. Source: Services Australia, Deeming. A different threshold applies to couples where neither partner gets a pension.

How does super affect the Age Pension?

Super is treated differently before and after Age Pension age, according to Services Australia:

• Under Age Pension age, not in a super pension: your super, and your partner’s, isn’t counted in the income and assets tests if your fund isn’t paying you a super pension.
• Under Age Pension age, in a super pension: if your fund is paying you a super pension, it is assessed as an income stream, and how depends on the type of income stream.
• At Age Pension age: your super is counted in the assets test, at the balance on your latest statement, and in the income test under the deeming rules.

Source: Services Australia, Superannuation (Age Pension) and Asset types. Rules for income streams and for super that can’t be accessed are more detailed than this guide covers.

In practice this means that, for someone who has reached Age Pension age, super sits alongside their other assets in the assets test and is treated as producing deemed income in the income test. The same super can therefore affect the result under both tests.

How much super can I have and still get the Age Pension?

There isn’t a limit on super alone. The assets test limits in the table above apply to the total of everything assessed: super, savings, investments, other property and possessions, but not your home in most cases. The income test then applies separately, with its own limits. Because the lower result applies, being within the assets test limits doesn’t by itself mean a pension is payable, and being under the income test cut-off doesn’t either.

This guide doesn’t name a super balance at which anyone does or doesn’t qualify. The answer depends on what else a person or couple owns and earns, whether they own their home, whether they are single or a couple, and which test gives the lower result.

Is my home counted for the Age Pension?

Services Australia says the assets test generally doesn’t include your principal home and up to the first 2 hectares of land it is on. Your homeowner status still matters: the limits for non-homeowners are higher, by $267,000 for both a single person and a couple combined, as the table above shows.

Other real estate is generally included, including property you rent out, leave vacant (such as a holiday home) or let someone else live in for free. Different rules apply in some situations, including farms, granny flat interests, leaving your home for a care situation and living in a retirement village.

Source: Services Australia, Asset types.

Does my partner’s super count?

For a couple, Services Australia needs income and asset information for both partners, and the assets test limits are for both partners’ assets combined.

Services Australia’s treatment of super depends on age, and it describes the same age-based treatment for a partner’s super. While a person is under Age Pension age, their super generally isn’t counted in the income and assets tests if their fund isn’t paying them a super pension. When they reach Age Pension age, their super is generally counted in the assets test and assessed under the deeming rules for the income test. Services Australia says the same rules apply to a partner’s super when the partner is Age Pension age, even if they aren’t getting a payment from Services Australia.

This guide doesn’t cover how Services Australia assesses particular combinations of ages and income streams; Services Australia can explain how its rules apply.

Sources: Services Australia, Superannuation (Age Pension) and How much Age Pension you can get.

What if the income test and assets test give different results?

Services Australia works out the pension rate under both tests and applies the one that gives the lower rate, which can be nil. Which test gives the lower rate depends on the person’s or couple’s own assets and income, so the assets test may be the one that applies for one person and the income test for another.

Super can affect both tests. At Age Pension age it counts as an asset, and it is treated as producing deemed income in the income test.

Source: Department of Social Services, Social Security Guide.

Why doesn’t OnTrack include the Age Pension?

OnTrack does not currently calculate Age Pension entitlement. It shows the retirement income your super alone may support, based on the details you enter and the assumptions stated, using OnTrack’s super-only projections.

That matters when reading other numbers. ASFA’s retirement benchmarks, for example, assume a part Age Pension, so they aren’t a like-for-like comparison with a super-only result; what ASFA’s retirement benchmarks assume is covered in a separate guide. Nothing in this guide is meant to be added to an OnTrack result, and an OnTrack projection shouldn’t be read as a person’s total retirement income.

Whether any Age Pension is payable depends on the rules at the time, on a person’s or couple’s circumstances at that time, and on Services Australia’s assessment.

What if I retire before Age Pension age?

Age Pension age is currently 67, which is later than the age at which many people can first access their super. Preservation age is 60 for anyone born after 30 June 1964, and what it means is explained in can you access your super before 60? Stopping work earlier, or accessing super earlier, doesn’t bring the Age Pension forward.

Reaching 67 is one requirement. The residence rules and the income and assets tests still apply, so some people receive a full pension, some a part pension and some none. Before Age Pension age, Services Australia says super isn’t counted in the tests unless the fund is paying a super pension, as set out above.

Why can two people with the same super get different amounts?

These are illustrations of how the rules work. They don’t show amounts, and they aren’t predictions about anyone.

• Home ownership. Two single people have the same super and the same other assets. One owns their home and the other doesn’t. The homeowner’s full-pension limit is $333,000 and the non-homeowner’s is $600,000, so the same assets sit in a different place on the assets test.
• Other assets. Super is counted alongside savings, shares, investment property and other assessable assets. Two people with the same super but different other assets have different totals.
• Income. Employment income and deemed income both count in the income test. Two people with the same super, one still working and one not, can be assessed differently.
• Single or couple. A couple’s assets and income are combined, and each partner’s super follows the age-based rules described above. The same super can mean something different for a person on their own than for one with a partner.
• Which test applies. Because the lower result applies, one person may be limited by the assets test and another by the income test.

Common questions

Can I work and still get the Age Pension?

Employment income is counted in the income test, so it can reduce or end a pension. Services Australia says to report any employment income that you and your partner receive, even if it is under the cut-off point, and it explains the Work Bonus on its income test page.

Does taking money out of super affect the Age Pension?

Services Australia says that taking money out of super does not itself affect the payment, but what happens to the money afterwards may. For example, money held in a bank account or used to buy an income stream may then be taken into account under the income and assets tests.

Do the Age Pension figures change?

Yes. The Department of Social Services adjusts the maximum rates every 20 March and 20 September, and reviews the assets test limits and cut-off points in March, July and September each year. The Minister for Social Services sets the deeming rates. The figures on this page are as at 20 September 2026, as read on 22 October 2026, so check Services Australia for the current ones.

Who decides whether I get the Age Pension?

Services Australia assesses claims. Its Financial Information Service (FIS) Officers can talk through how super and other assets are treated; you can reach them through the Older Australians line.

Where these figures come from

All figures are as at 20 September 2026 and were read on 22 October 2026.

• Services Australia, Who can get Age Pension (Age Pension age, other rules)
• Services Australia, Residence rules for Age Pension
• Services Australia, Assets test for Age Pension (limits and cut-offs)
• Services Australia, Income test for Age Pension (free areas, reduction rates and cut-offs)
• Services Australia, Deeming (rates and thresholds)
• Services Australia, Superannuation and Asset types (how super and the home are treated)
• Department of Social Services, Social Security Guide 4.2.3 (the assets test reduction rate and how the two tests are compared)