Age Pension calculator
The Age Pension is means-tested two ways at once — on your income and on your assets — and you're paid the lower result. Move the sliders to estimate your entitlement, with every step of the working shown.
Your situation
Your home is exempt either way. Homeowners get a lower assets free area ($333,000) than non-homeowners ($600,000).
Super, shares, bank accounts, managed funds, your car and home contents — valued at market/sale value. Type any amount; the slider covers up to $3m.
Advanced: other income
Income NOT from investments — e.g. wages, rent, or a defined-benefit/overseas pension. Your investments are counted via deeming below, so leave this at 0 if all your money is invested.
Two means tests run separately; you're paid the lower result. The maximum single rate (incl. supplements) is $31,223/yr.
The income test doesn't use what your investments actually earn — it “deems” your $400,000 of assets to earn a set rate. That deemed figure is your income here, even though you entered no other income.
Your $11,664 assessable income (from step 1) is $5,788 over the $5,876 free area. Reduce the max by 50c per $1: $31,223 − ($5,788 × 50%) = $28,329.
Assets over the $333,000 free area are $67,000. Reduce the max by $3/fortnight per $1,000 ($0.078/yr per $1): $31,223 − ($67,000 × 7.8%) = $25,997.
min($28,329, $25,997) = $25,997 — the assets test binds here. Your pension reaches $0 once assets exceed $733,300.
Jargon, explained
- Assessable assets
- Almost everything you own except your family home — super, shares, bank accounts, managed funds, a car, home contents and personal effects, valued at what you'd get selling them.
- Income test
- One of the two means tests. It reduces your pension by 50c for every $1 of assessable income above the income free area.
- Assets test
- The other means test. It reduces your pension by $3 per fortnight for every $1,000 of assessable assets above the assets free area (≈ 7.8% a year).
- Deeming
- Rather than track your actual investment returns, the government 'deems' your financial assets to earn a set rate — a lower rate up to a threshold and a higher rate above it. That deemed amount is your assessable income from investments.
- Deemed income
- The income figure produced by deeming — used in the income test, whether or not your investments actually earn that much.
- Taper rate
- How fast the pension falls once you're over a free area: 50c per $1 of income, or $3/fortnight per $1,000 of assets.
- Free area
- How much income or assets you can have before the pension starts to reduce. Below both free areas you get the maximum rate.
- Pension supplement
- Extra amounts (the Pension Supplement and Energy Supplement) paid on top of the base rate. The maximum figures here already include them.
- Homeowner
- Owning the home you live in. The home itself is exempt, but homeowners get a lower assets free area than non-homeowners (who are assumed to pay rent).
General information only, using 1 Jul 2026 rates in today's dollars — not personal financial advice. Your actual entitlement depends on Services Australia's full assessment (including asset types, gifting and relationship rules) and your circumstances. Rates and thresholds are indexed periodically.
How the Age Pension is tested
Services Australia runs an income test and an assets test separately, then pays whichever gives the lower pension. Below both free areas you get the maximum rate; above them the pension tapers away — by 50c per $1 of income, or $3 a fortnight per $1,000 of assets.
Your investments are counted through deeming: rather than your actual returns, the government assumes a set rate on your financial assets. Your family home is exempt from the assets test, but homeowners get a smaller assets free area than non-homeowners. It's the same means test that sits behind aged-care fees.
See it across your whole retirement
The free planner projects your Age Pension year by year as your assets draw down — often rising as you spend — alongside your super, tax and spending.
Open the planner