Age Pension Calculator

Understanding age pensions in Australia

What the full Age Pension pays in 2026

From 20 March 2026 the maximum Age Pension is $1,200.90 a fortnight for a single person, which works out to roughly $31,200 a year, and $1,810.40 combined for a couple, about $47,100 a year or $905.20 each. Those headline numbers already fold in the Pension Supplement and the Energy Supplement, the two small add-ons that lift the base rate to help cover medicines, utilities and the cost of staying connected. The base single rate is around $1,051.30, the Pension Supplement adds about $83.60 and the Energy Supplement about $14.10, but you don't need to track them separately because Centrelink pays the combined figure. The Department of Social Services re-indexes these amounts every 20 March and 20 September against wages and prices, so a rate quoted in one half of the year has usually crept up by the next. Treat any figure here as the March 2026 position, not a number frozen forever.

The two tests, and why the lower one wins

Whether you get the full rate, a reduced part rate, or nothing at all comes down to two separate means tests: the assets test and the income test. Centrelink runs both every time and pays you under whichever produces the lower payment. This is the single rule that catches the most people out. You can sit comfortably under the assets cut-off and still have your pension trimmed, because the deemed income from those same assets pushes you over on the income side. The two tests are not added together and you are not paid the better of them, you are paid the worse of them. That is deliberate, so that one generous test can't be used to sidestep the other.

How the assets test bites

Under the assets test, your fortnightly pension drops by $3 for every $1,000 of assessable assets above the free area. The free area from March 2026 is about $321,500 for a single homeowner and $481,500 for a homeowner couple, with higher figures for non-homeowners. The $3-per-$1,000 taper sounds gentle but it is steep in annual terms: every extra $100,000 of assessable assets costs roughly $7,800 of pension a year. Your family home is exempt no matter its value, but almost everything else counts at its market resale value, including bank and term-deposit balances, shares and managed funds, account-based pensions once you've reached pension age, investment and holiday properties, caravans, boats, business assets and the second-hand value of your car, furniture and contents.

How the income test bites

The income test runs in parallel. Your pension falls by 50 cents for every dollar of assessable income above the income-free area, which from March 2026 is about $218 a fortnight for a single and $380 combined for a couple. The twist is what counts as income. Most of your savings and investments are 'deemed', meaning Centrelink assumes they earn a set rate whether they really do or not: 1.25% on the first $64,200 of a single's financial assets (or $106,200 for a couple) and 3.25% on anything above that from 20 March 2026. So a term deposit paying almost nothing and a share portfolio paying handsomely are both assessed on these notional rates. Wages are treated more kindly thanks to the Work Bonus, which shields the first $300 a fortnight of employment income before the test applies.

Reading your own result

This calculator applies both tests to the numbers you enter and shows the binding one, so you can see roughly where you'd land and which test is the constraint. If your result is being set by the income test, the lever is usually your deemed income, not your raw asset total; if it's the assets test, trimming assessable assets is what moves the needle. Either way it is an indicative estimate, not a Centrelink assessment. The real figure can shift with details this tool can't capture: gifting in the past five years, an account-based pension started after 2015, a granny-flat or reverse-mortgage arrangement, an overseas property, or a partner who hasn't yet reached 67. Confirm your number through your Centrelink online account or with a Services Australia Financial Information Service officer, which is a free government service, before you act on it.