Age Pension - single

What Is This Payment?

The Age Pension is the headline retirement income support payment in the Australian federal system. Inside the rule database it is tagged as a monetary primary federal benefit in the Age Pension cluster, with the entitlement scope marked as a person-level ongoing payment that must be reviewed periodically. The single variant covered on this page is the path used when the partner status field equals single, distinguishing it from the partnered each-rate path and the illness-separated path that share the same cluster.

The administering body is Services Australia. Claims are accepted through three application channels recorded in the rule: online via the myGov-linked Centrelink service, in person at a service centre and by phone. The same claim form covers all three Age Pension variants; the system routes the case to the correct rule based on the partner status and special living arrangement fields supplied at intake.

The design intent of this rule is twofold. First, it provides a stable lifetime income floor for older Australians whose paid working years are behind them. Second, it acts as the gateway to the Pensioner Concession Card and a long list of state-level concessions, because the affects block records auto_includes against the PCC. That is why this rule carries an unlock_priority hint alongside the monetary_priority hint in the ranking metadata.

How Much Can You Get?

The amount block is defined as a formula paid fortnightly. The base is $1,200.90 per fortnight, recorded as the March 2026 full single rate including a pension supplement of up to $86.50 and an energy supplement of $14.10. Across 26 fortnights this is approximately $31,223.40 a year at the full rate, before any income reduction.

Income reduction mode is cumulative with one step. When income_fortnightly exceeds the free area of $218, the payment is reduced by $0.50 for each additional dollar of income above the threshold. The cap floor sits at $0, meaning no negative payments are produced. There is no upper cap on the payment amount; the base itself acts as the ceiling.

To audit any single-rate estimate, follow five steps in order. First, confirm the base of $1,200.90 per fortnight. Second, take the assessable fortnightly income figure and subtract the free area of $218 to find the excess. Third, multiply the excess by the taper rate of 0.5. Fourth, subtract that reduction from the base. Fifth, apply the minimum cap at zero if the calculation goes negative. As a worked example, a single pensioner with $400 in fortnightly income has $182 of excess income, a reduction of $91, and a payable rate of $1,109.90 per fortnight before any other adjustments.

The rule stores an empty multiplier object, an empty reduces_if array and an empty date_windows array. That tells the engine no extra multiplicative factors, conditional penalties or date-sliced formula branches are active. The headline rate, the single income free area, the 50-cent taper and the floor at zero are the entire decision tree for the dollar outcome under this rule version.

Two important nuances live outside the formula but are recorded in the rule notes and the affects block. First, the assets test is a hard gate, not a taper, in this rule version: at $722,000 of assets for a homeowner or $980,000 for a non-homeowner, eligibility is lost outright rather than tapered to zero. Second, the Pension Supplement value of $86.50 is bundled inside the $1,200.90 base, so it should not be added on top a second time when reading the Pension Supplement page.

Eligibility Conditions

The eligibility block is an all set, so every item must pass; the nested any branch is satisfied if either the homeowner combination or the non-homeowner combination holds.

1. Has reached Age Pension age: meets_age_pension_age = true. The rule note records the current Age Pension age as 67. The flag is derived in the preprocessing layer from date of birth and claim date.
2. Residency status: residency_status in [australian_citizen, permanent_resident, special_category_visa]. A 10-year residency requirement also applies in policy and is derived as meets_age_pension_residency_requirement in preprocessing.
3. Living in Australia: living_in_australia = true. Long-term overseas residence affects the rate paid outside Australia and may break this gate.
4. Single partner status: partner_status = single. Partnered claimants with no special living arrangement route to the couple rule, and illness-separated couples route to the illness-separated rule.
5. Homeowner asset cap: is_homeowner = true and assets_total < 722000. The principal home is excluded from the assets total; everything else, including investment property, superannuation in pension phase, vehicles and household goods, is assessable.
6. Non-homeowner asset cap: is_homeowner = false and assets_total < 980000. The higher non-homeowner cap recognises that renters need a larger asset buffer to fund accommodation in retirement.

Required fields are seven items: meets_age_pension_age, residency_status, partner_status, income_fortnightly, assets_total, living_in_australia and is_homeowner. All seven must be present at intake for the rule to evaluate deterministically.

The exclude set blocks claimants currently receiving JobSeeker Payment, Disability Support Pension, Parenting Payment Single or Austudy. These are the four primary payments that overlap most often in transition cases, and the rule treats them as mutually exclusive choices rather than stacking entitlements.

How To Apply

Application metadata defines three channels: online, service centre and phone. The same claim form covers single and partnered cases, and the system routes the result to the correct rule based on the partner status answer.

Evidence requirements are explicitly listed in the rule and should be prepared in advance:

• identity document (driver licence, passport or other accepted Centrelink ID)
• tax file number
• bank account details for direct deposit
• asset details including investment properties, vehicles, shares and household contents
• income details from any continuing employment, self-employment or investment streams
• superannuation details for both accumulation and pension-phase accounts

Two practical tips help. First, you can lodge the claim up to 13 weeks before reaching Age Pension age, which gives Services Australia time to process and sets payment to start from the first qualifying day. Second, complete a thorough assets review before lodging because superannuation in accumulation phase below Age Pension age is treated differently from pension-phase super, and missing this distinction is a common source of estimate errors.

Lodge your Age Pension claim through myGov

Rule-Based Scenarios

Scenario 1: full rate, low assets and income

Margaret is 68, single, an Australian citizen and a homeowner with $180,000 in superannuation pension-phase plus $20,000 in cash, totalling $200,000 in assessable assets. She earns $80 per fortnight from a part-time hobby business. All six eligibility gates pass and her income is below the $218 free area, so no reduction applies. Her payable rate is the full $1,200.90 per fortnight, equivalent to roughly $31,223.40 a year.

Scenario 2: partial reduction from rental income

Vincent is 70, single, a non-homeowner renting in Adelaide. His assessable assets are $480,000 including super and an investment unit. He earns $620 in fortnightly rental income after deductions. He passes residency, age, single status and the non-homeowner cap of $980,000. Excess income above the $218 free area is $402, generating a $201 reduction. His payable rate is $999.90 per fortnight, or about $25,997.40 a year.

Scenario 3: blocked by assets test

Eleanor is 69, single and a homeowner with $740,000 in assessable assets after selling a beach house. The homeowner cap is $722,000, so the asset test fails and the eligibility check returns not eligible under this rule. The Age Pension cannot be paid until her assessable assets fall below $722,000 or she becomes a non-homeowner with assets under $980,000. The rule does not taper for assets, so even being slightly over the cap zeroes the entitlement entirely.

Scenario 4: blocked by an existing JobSeeker claim

Catherine has just turned 67. She has been on JobSeeker Payment for three years and meets every other gate on the single Age Pension rule. The exclude block triggers because receiving_payment equals jobseeker_payment, so the rule returns blocked. The intended workflow is for her to transfer onto Age Pension, which Services Australia normally proposes automatically as the more generous payment, but until the JobSeeker claim is closed and the Age Pension claim is granted, this rule cannot pay.

Common Mistakes

• Combining Age Pension single income test with couple thresholds: some readers cross-check against the couple combined free area of $380 instead of the single $218. The single rule uses its own threshold and a 50-cent taper; mixing inputs from the couple rule produces an over-generous estimate by hundreds of dollars per fortnight.
• Counting the family home in assets test: the principal place of residence is exempt from assets_total in this rule. Including it pushes most homeowners straight past the $722,000 cap and falsely fails the eligibility check. Only investment property, additional dwellings and non-residential land sit in the assessable total.
• Missing the 13-week early lodgement option: the application note allows lodging up to 13 weeks before Age Pension age. Waiting until the 67th birthday means payment can be delayed for the processing window, often four to eight weeks, even though the law would otherwise allow same-day commencement.
• Stacking Age Pension with JobSeeker carry-over: claimants on JobSeeker who reach Age Pension age sometimes assume both can run together for a transition period. The exclude block sets receiving_payment in [jobseeker_payment, ...] as a hard gate; only one primary payment is in pay at any time.
• Confusing Age Pension age with preservation age: superannuation preservation age (currently 60 for those born after 1 July 1964) is unrelated to Age Pension age (67 in this rule). Drawing a super pension from 60 does not make a person Age-Pension-eligible. The meets_age_pension_age flag must independently be true.
• Listing CSHC alongside the Age Pension: the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is for self-funded retirees who do not receive a pension. The affects block records CSHC as disabled when Age Pension is in pay, because pensioners receive the Pensioner Concession Card instead. Holding both at once is not possible.

Related Benefits

The conflicts list and affects list in this rule define the immediate interaction surface. Use these links to navigate the surrounding rules in the typical retiree journey.

• Age Pension - couple (each) - the partnered version of this rule, paid at the lower couple-each rate of $905.20 per fortnight with a combined income test from $380.
• Age Pension - illness separated - applies when the partner is in residential care, prison or respite. Each member of the couple is paid the single rate of $1,200.90.
• Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) - auto-issued the moment Age Pension is granted; unlocks PBS, bulk billing priority and many state concessions.
• Pension Supplement - the $86.50 single component is already bundled in the $1,200.90 base; a quarterly payment option is available for water and electricity bills.
• Commonwealth Rent Assistance - single, no dependent child - directly enabled by the Age Pension single rule for renting pensioners.
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card - single - mutually exclusive with Age Pension; for self-funded retirees who do not pass the income or assets test.

Frequently Asked Questions