Pension rates if you are a couple

This page contains tables that can help you estimate your rate of Service Pension or Social Security Age Pension. Your estimate will depend on the amount of income and assets that you own. For the best estimate of your pension, please contact DVA.

The rates on this page are effective from 20 September 2024.

If your pension is still assessed under the pre-20 September 2009 rules, please refer to Couples who started their pension before 20 September 2009.

If you are living overseas or using this to calculate your pension rate for the pension bonus scheme, you must subtract $49.50 from the rate of service pension indicated in the ready reckoner tables.

Before you use the tables

Before you can estimate your rate of pension, you will need to be able to answer the following questions:

• Are you a home owner or not?
• What is the total gross fortnightly income for you and your partner?
• What is the total value of you and your partner’s assets?

The next sections of this page will help you to answer these questions. Once you have worked out these three things, you can then estimate your rate of pension by consulting the tables in this page.

Are you a home owner or not?

You can be regarded as a home owner if any of the following apply to you:

• own the home you live in
• are paying off the home you live in
• have a right or interest in the home you live in and that right or interest gives you reasonable security to live there.

In most cases a home is a house. A home can also be a caravan or a boat if this is your usual place of residence. For more information on home ownership refer to How owning a home can affect pensions and payments.

There are special rules for people who live in retirement villages and granny flats. For more information on retirement villages and granny flats refer to Granny Flats, Retirement Villages and Sale Leaseback Agreements.

There are special rules for people who live in residential aged care facilities. To find out whether you are considered a home owner contact DVA.

What is income?

Income includes things like:

• gross salaries and wages
• deemed income from financial assets (see the following paragraph on ‘Deemed Income’ for information on working out your deemed income)
• the monetary value of non-income benefits paid in lieu of salary and wages, including salary sacrifice amounts
• superannuation pensions
• pension or disability payments paid from a defined benefit superannuation fund
• income from purchased superannuation pensions, annuities, allocated pensions, account-based pensions, transition to retirement pensions, market linked pensions and term allocated pensions
• income from purchased non-superannuation annuities
• income from overseas pensions and annuities
• income from real estate
• profits from farms, private trusts, private companies and other businesses such as partnerships
• income from estates and life interests
• payments from the surrender, withdrawal or maturity of a conventional life insurance policy which exceed the total premiums paid towards the policy
• distributions from private trusts and private companies
• income from non-financial assets such as patents.

For people who are over qualifying age and whose pension is not assessed under the transition rules, the first $300.00 of their work bonus income per fortnight will be excluded from the income test. For more information refer to Work Bonus.

Service Pension, Disability Compensation Payment and War Widow(er)'s Pension are not counted as income when working out your rate of pension.

For more information on what is considered as income, refer to Income Test.

Deemed Income

Income from financial assets is calculated by ‘deeming’ the assets. This means that, regardless of the actual return or income you are receiving from your financial assets (bank accounts, shares, managed investments, loans, debentures etc), we assume they are earning a rate of interest known as the ‘deeming rate’. Income from some financial assets can be difficult to calculate and deeming is a simple and fair way of assessing the amount of income from these assets.

To work out your deemed income you must first add up the total value of your financial assets. Financial assets include:

• accounts with banks or other financial institutions (including savings and cheque accounts and term deposits)
• cash in excess of $500
• gold and other bullion
• managed investments such as public unit trusts (including cash, mortgage, property and equity trusts), insurance bonds and friendly society bonds
• loans you make to other people including family and friends
• loans you make to organisations, such as businesses, private trusts or private companies
• bonds and debentures
• shares in public companies on any stock exchange either in Australia or overseas
• shares in unlisted public companies
• asset-tested short term income streams
• certain account-based income streams
• money in a superannuation fund where your fund is in the accumulation phase and not paying you a pension (including a retail, industry, corporate, employer or public sector fund, retirement savings account and self-managed superannuation fund) for pensioners who are of pension age
• gifts in excess of:
  • $10,000 in a financial year
  • $30,000 in a rolling five-year period.

For more information on deeming and financial assets, refer to Deeming and Financial Assets.

Once you have calculated the total of your financial assets, check the table on this page to work out your deemed income. Look for the figure in the Total Financial Assets column that is closest to your total financial assets. To the right of this figure will be your deemed income.

What is an asset?

An asset is:

• any property or possession you partly or wholly own
• financial assets
• assets held outside Australia
• the value of any debts owing to you.

The asset value is the amount you could get if you sold the asset on the open market, less any valid debts owing on that particular asset.

Some common examples of assets are real estate, cars, boats, farms, household contents, businesses, and collectibles.

Financial assets include things like accounts with banks or other financial institutions, managed investments, bonds and debentures, shares and loans. For more information on financial assets refer to Deeming and Financial Assets.

Assets that are not counted when working out your rate of pension include things such as the home you live in, if you are a home owner, and certain types of funeral bonds.

For more information refer to Asset Test.

How to use the tables

There are three tables:

• Table 1: Income test for couples
• Table 2: Assets test for home owner couples
• Table 3: Assets test for couples who do not own their home.

You need to consult table 1 and either table 2 or table 3. If you are a home owner, consult table 2. If you are not a home owner then consult table 3.

To estimate your rate of pension:

1. Look up your fortnightly income on table 1 and note the pension rate.
2. Look up your total assets on the appropriate assets test table (table 2 for home owners or table 3 if you do not own your home) and note the pension rate.
3. Compare the two pension rates - the lower of the two results is your estimated rate of pension.

If your income or asset amounts are lower than the lowest figure in the table then your rate of pension for that test will be the maximum rate - $862.60.

If you are living overseas or using this to calculate your pension rate for the pension bonus scheme, you must subtract $49.50 from the rate of service pension indicated in the ready reckoner tables.

The minimum amount payable per fortnight is $44.40. If your result for fortnightly pension is between $44.40 and zero, then your estimated rate will be $44.40.

Understanding the results

In the following tables:

• all amounts are given in dollars ($)
• all pension rates are fortnightly payments
• the pension rates given include the pension supplement which is $73.30 each for couples
• remember that your estimated pension rate is the lower of the two results
• the results are for each partner – i.e. if the result is $200, each partner would receive $200.

Deemed income estimator for couples

Table 1: Income test for couples

Table 2: Assets test for home owner couples

Table 3: Assets test for couples who do not own their home