Retirement
Every $1,000 over the line costs you $78 a year of Age Pension
Above the free area, the assets test takes $3.00 a fortnight for every $1,000, or $78 a year. So that money must earn 7.8% a year just to keep up, and very little does.
Your savings must earn 7.8% to keep up with the pension they cost. Almost nothing does.
Above the assets free area, every extra $1,000 you own cuts your Age Pension by $3.00 a fortnight. That is $78 a year. Put another way, that money has to earn 7.8% after fees and tax just to break even against the pension it costs you. A term deposit will not do that. Few cautious investments will.
So the assets test is not just a limit. It is a rate of return your money is quietly measured against. Look at it that way and a set of ordinary, legal decisions (prepaying a funeral, fixing the roof, timing a gift, which partner holds what) turns out to carry a price nobody quoted you.
A single homeowner keeps the full pension up to $333,000 and loses it entirely at $745,567. A homeowner couple: $499,000 and $1,121,000.
Between those two numbers, every money decision you make has a second price.
What the free Age Pension calculator shows you
- Both tests, not just the one you assumed. The assets test and the income test are worked out separately, and you are paid the lower result. Which one is holding you down decides which moves can help.
- Deeming, done properly. Your savings are assessed as if they earn 1.75% and 3.75%, whatever they really earn. That is why the income test so often surprises people.
- The Work Bonus, the free areas and the homeowner rules. The gap between the homeowner and non-homeowner free areas is big enough to change the whole answer.
- What the taper takes from you each year, and how far you are above or below your free area.
- Every option open to you, named and explained in plain English, so you can see the shape of the decision before you pay a cent.
What the full report adds
- Every legal option priced and ranked on one clear measure: the pension you receive over the years you choose, plus what you still own at the end. Both halves count, because cutting your assets by spending them is not a win. Changing nothing is on the list too, and sometimes it comes out on top.
- The exact point where each option stops helping. Once you are back at the free area, another dollar moved buys no more pension.
- When a gift pays for itself. A gift inside the limits takes roughly 12.8 years of extra pension to win back the money given away. The report shows whether that happens over your own years.
- Your pension year by year under each option, and what Services Australia must be told, and by when.
- Something to take to Services Australia or an adviser, with all the working visible, so the conversation starts from the numbers.
What this calculator will not do
It does not give financial advice and does not recommend a strategy. It applies the published rates and limits to the figures you enter, and ranks the legal options on one stated measure. What suits your circumstances, your health and your family is a question for a licensed adviser or a Services Australia Financial Information Service officer. Both work better with the numbers already in front of them.
Your actual entitlement is decided by Services Australia, on the information you give them. Everything here runs on the rates current at 20 September 2026.
What people ask before they run it
How much can I have in assets and still get the Age Pension?
You get the full rate up to the free area, and the pension stops completely at the cut-off. For a homeowner couple those are $499,000 and $1,121,000. For a single homeowner they are $333,000 and $745,567. If you do not own your home both are higher: $766,000 and $1,388,000 for a couple, $600,000 and $1,012,567 for a single person. In between, every $1,000 costs $78 a year. The home you live in is never counted.
How much does the assets test reduce my Age Pension?
It takes $3.00 a fortnight off your pension for every $1,000 of assessable assets above the free area. That is $78 a year, or 7.8% of that $1,000. The free area is $499,000 for a couple who own their home and $333,000 for a single homeowner. So a couple $200,000 over the line lose $15,600 of pension a year, every year.
Is 7.8% really the return my savings have to beat?
Yes, if the goal is to replace the pension income those savings are costing you. $78 a year on $1,000 is 7.8% after fees and tax, and almost no portfolio earns that reliably. But the money itself is still yours. That is why giving it away is slower than moving it somewhere the assets test does not count. The report prices both.
Can I give money away to get more Age Pension?
Yes, but only up to the gifting limits: $10,000 in a financial year and no more than $30,000 across any five years. Anything over that is still counted as your asset, and still deemed, for five years from the day you give it. A gift inside the limits raises the pension by $78 a year per $1,000, so it takes about 12.8 years for the extra pension to replace the money you gave away.
If one of us moves into aged care, do we still get the couple rate?
No. A couple who must live apart because one of them needs residential or nursing care are treated as separated by illness. You are assessed on the couple thresholds against everything you both own, then each paid the single rate. Together that is $64,360 a year instead of $48,516, and the assets cut-off moves out too. It is not automatic: Services Australia has to be told why you live apart.
Does Rent Assistance count in the Age Pension tests?
Yes. Rent Assistance is part of the payment the tests reduce, not a separate payment beside it. It is 75 cents for every dollar of rent above $157.80 a fortnight for a single person or $255.80 for a couple, capped at $223.80 and $211.00. It is added to your maximum rate, and the income and assets tests then reduce that whole total. That is why your cut-off point is higher if you get it.
Is this financial advice?
No. This is an information service. It applies the published social security rules to the figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every step of the working visible. It ranks options on one stated measure and does not recommend any of them. Whether an option suits you, and what it might cost you in ways a number cannot show, are outside that measure.
Why is the report so cheap when an adviser charges thousands?
Because most households are missing the maths, not an opinion, and maths can be done for many people at once. A licensed adviser typically charges from $3,500 for a statement of advice. That includes a personal recommendation, which this service is not licensed to give and does not try to. The report gives you the numbers behind every option so you can see them for yourself.
Is my house counted in the Age Pension assets test?
No. The home you live in is not counted in the assets test, whatever it is worth, along with up to two hectares of the land it sits on. Owning it does lower your free area, though: $499,000 for a homeowner couple against $766,000 for a couple who rent. Money spent on the home stops being counted, which is why repairs and renovations can raise the pension.
How much can I earn and still get the Age Pension?
You can have up to $226 a fortnight of income as a single person, or $396 combined as a couple, before the income test takes anything. Above that, the pension drops by 50 cents for every extra dollar. It stops completely at about $70,236 a year for a single person and $107,328 for a couple. On top of that, the Work Bonus sets aside $300 a fortnight of wages each before the test starts counting.
What are the Age Pension deeming rates?
The deeming rates are 1.75% on financial assets up to the threshold and 3.75% on anything above it. The threshold is $66,800 for a single person and $110,600 combined for a couple. Deeming means the income test assumes your savings, shares and account based pensions earn these rates, whatever they really earn. It does not apply to an investment property, a business or your own home.
When do Age Pension rates and thresholds change?
Pension rates change twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September. The assets test free areas, the income free areas and the deeming thresholds change once a year on 1 July. Because every cut-off point is worked out from the maximum rate, the cut-offs move in March and September too. The $3.00 taper does not move: it has stayed the same since 1 January 2017.
Do funeral bonds count in the Age Pension assets test?
No, not up to the limit. A funeral bond of up to $16,250 a person is not counted in the assets test, and the money inside it is not deemed either. A funeral that is fully paid for in advance is not counted at all, with no limit. It is the smallest of the exemptions, but also the easiest one to use.
Everything on Pension Optimiser
Your estimate is free, and it is a real answer.
Calculates the Australian Age Pension under both the assets test and the income test on your own figures - deeming, the Work Bonus, the homeowner and non-homeowner free areas, gifting and the exemptions - then prices every lawful way of reducing assessable assets and ranks them on one measure: pension received over the projection plus what the household still owns at the end.
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