Retirement Income & Age Pension Calculator

Who actually gets the Age Pension

Age Pension age is 67, and has been since July 2023, for anyone born on or after 1 January 1957. There's no legislated plan to push it higher. You also need to meet residency rules: at least 10 years living in Australia, including 5 years in a row, with some exceptions if you've lived in a country that has a social security agreement with Australia.

As of the June 2026 rates, the maximum pension is $1,200.90 a fortnight for a single person (about $31,223 a year) and $1,810.40 a fortnight combined for a couple (about $47,070 a year), including the Pension Supplement and Energy Supplement, before tax. Services Australia updates these rates twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September, benchmarked against inflation and wage measures. It's not a huge amount on its own, but stacked with your own super drawdown it usually gets you a long way. For the full rundown on eligibility and how payments actually work, see our guide to the Age Pension in Australia.

How the means test actually works: two tests, one result

Every time Centrelink assesses your Age Pension, it runs two separate calculations. The income test looks at what you earn, the assets test looks at what you own, and you get whichever result is lower. That single rule is the foundation of this retirement income calculator, and it's the thing most people misunderstand.

The assets test tapers your pension by $3 a fortnight for every $1,000 of assessable assets above the full-pension threshold. As of 1 July 2026, a single homeowner can hold up to $333,000 and still get the full pension, with the part pension cutting out entirely around $733,500. A homeowner couple can hold a combined $499,000 for the full pension, cutting out around $1,102,500. Non-homeowners get higher thresholds again, up to $600,000 for a single non-homeowner, to roughly account for the fact they're still covering rent from their own pocket. Your family home is always exempt, no matter what it's worth, everything else generally counts.

The income test doesn't look at what your super or savings actually earned. It uses deeming: Centrelink assumes your financial assets return 1.25% on the first $66,800 (single) or $110,600 (couple combined), and 3.25% on anything above that, regardless of your real returns. The first $226 a fortnight of assessable income (single) or $396 combined (couple) is ignored, then your pension drops by 50 cents per dollar over that for a single person, or 25 cents per dollar per person for a couple. Still working a bit? The Work Bonus exempts the first $300 a fortnight of employment income from the income test, on top of a $4,000 income bank new pensioners get straight away, so plenty of part-time workers in their late 60s still qualify for a decent part pension.

The super drawdown trap, and the opportunity inside it

This calculator shows something counterintuitive: drawing down your super faster doesn't hurt your Age Pension the way most people fear, it can actually improve it over time. When you spend your super on living costs, that money leaves your assessable assets, and a lower balance means a higher pension entitlement under the assets test. The withdrawal itself doesn't trigger an income test hit either, because Centrelink uses deeming to assess account-based pensions, not your actual drawdown amount.

Once your super is in pension phase, the ATO also sets a minimum you have to draw down each year, starting at 5% between ages 65 and 74 and stepping up to 14% from 95 onward. The practical upshot: a retiree who draws down at a healthy rate in early retirement can end up with a larger combined income stream than one who draws the bare minimum and lets assets sit untouched. We break down the full rules, including what happens on a transition-to- retirement pension, in how much super you can withdraw after 60.

What does a comfortable retirement actually cost?

The ASFA Retirement Standard is the closest thing Australia has to an official benchmark, published quarterly by the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia for homeowners aged 65 to 84. As at the March 2026 quarter, a comfortable retirement costs about $55,923 a year for a single person and $78,566 a year for a couple, covering private health cover, regular travel, a decent car and home maintenance. A modest retirement, which is basically a step up from the Age Pension alone, costs around $36,434 (single) and $52,473 (couple).

ASFA estimates you'd need roughly $630,000 in super at 67 as a single person, or $730,000 as a couple, to fund a comfortable retirement, assuming you also draw a partial Age Pension as your balance runs down. They're not a hard target, more a useful sanity check. We go through how to work out your own number in how much super you need to retire in Australia.

Worked example: a couple with $600,000 combined

Take a homeowner couple, both 67, with $600,000 combined in super and savings and no other income. Under the assets test, that's $101,000 over the $499,000 threshold, so the pension tapers by $303 a fortnight, down to $1,507.40 a fortnight (about $39,192 a year). Under the income test, that $600,000 is deemed to earn $17,288 a year, which works out to roughly $1,676 a fortnight (about $43,573 a year) after the taper. The assets test gives the lower number, so it applies, landing on an estimated pension of about $39,192 a year.

Add this calculator's 4% drawdown on their $600,000 ($24,000 a year) and this couple lands on roughly $63,192 a year in total retirement income, a bit short of the $78,566 ASFA comfortable benchmark. That gap isn't fixed, though: as they spend down their super over the years, their assessable assets fall and their Age Pension entitlement rises to help fill it in. Plug your own numbers into the calculator above to see how your situation plays out.

Common misconceptions worth clearing up

"My home counts against me." It doesn't. The family home is fully exempt from the assets test no matter what it's worth, a $3 million house in Sydney counts for exactly $0.

"I need to be broke to get anything." Not even close. A homeowner couple can hold up to $1,102,500 in assessable assets and still receive a part pension.

"My super is always counted." Only once it's in pension phase. Super sitting in accumulation phase, before you've started drawing it, isn't counted at all if you're under Age Pension age.

"Once I'm on it, my pension is fixed." Your entitlement is reassessed regularly. As your super balance draws down over retirement, plenty of people end up on a higher pension in their 80s than they received at 67. Services Australia doesn't backdate missed payments, so it's worth checking your numbers again every so often rather than assuming a first assessment is the final word.