JobSeeker Payment - single, 22+, no dependent child

What Is This Payment?

JobSeeker Payment is the federal income support for working-age adults who do not have a job or who can only work limited hours. In the rule database it is tagged as a monetary primary Federal benefit in the JobSeeker Payment cluster. Tags on this rule include unemployment, working_age, centrelink, and single. The entitlement scope is per person and ongoing, with no time limit and assessment running each reporting fortnight.

The administering body is Services Australia. The standard intake channels are the Centrelink online account inside myGov, a service centre visit, or a phone claim through the Centrelink employment line. Once granted, the payment is paid by direct deposit on a fortnightly cycle, with reporting required every two weeks via the online account or the Express Plus Centrelink mobile app.

Within the JobSeeker cluster there are five sibling rules, each tuned for a different living and capacity situation. This rule covers the cleanest case: single, no dependent children, full work capacity, not yet at Age Pension age, and not in long-term receipt. It pays the lowest base in the cluster ($808.70) because the partnered, with-child, fifty-five-plus-long-term, and partial-capacity variants attract different bases. The lifecycle exit usually happens by transition to Age Pension at 67 or by leaving income support after finding sufficient work.

How Much Can You Get?

The amount block is defined as a formula paid fortnightly. Base is $808.70 per fortnight. The rule note records this as the March 2026 official value confirmed against the Services Australia rate page, with the Energy Supplement already folded into the base. Annualised across 26 fortnights, the unreduced figure equals about $21,026.20 per year. The rule output display period is yearly, but the assessment mechanics operate fortnightly.

The income test runs in two cumulative steps. The first step taps in at income_fortnightly = 150: every dollar of personal income between $150 and $256 reduces the payment by 50 cents. That means the maximum reduction in the first band, hit only at $256, is 50 percent of $106, equal to $53.00. The second step taps in at $256 and applies a 60 cent reduction in the dollar with no upper threshold encoded. The cumulative mode means both bands stack: at $400 of fortnightly income the reduction is $53.00 (band one) plus 60 percent of ($400 minus $256) which is $86.40, for a total reduction of $139.40 against the $808.70 base, leaving $669.30 payable.

The cut-out point for the single no-child rate happens when the cumulative reduction reaches the base of $808.70. Solving the formula gives an income cut-out around $1,515 per fortnight: 50 cents on $106 is $53.00, then 60 cents on the remaining $1,259 is $755.40, summing to $808.40 just under the base. Above that fortnightly earnings level the payment is zero.

The amount floor cap is minimum $0. There is no negative payout path. If the two-band reduction equals or exceeds the base, the estimated JobSeeker amount for that reporting fortnight is zero, and the payment for that period does not flow.

You can audit any estimate with a five-step recipe matching the YAML structure. First, confirm the base of $808.70. Second, compute the assessable excess in band one as min(income, 256) minus 150, then multiply by 0.5. Third, compute band two as max(income minus 256, 0), then multiply by 0.6. Fourth, sum the two reductions. Fifth, subtract the total reduction from the base and clamp at zero. This is the exact order implied by mode: cumulative, the two thresholds, and the two reduction rates in the YAML structure.

The rule stores an empty multiplier, empty reduces_if, and empty date_windows, which means no extra multiplicative factors, conditional penalties, or date-sliced formula branches apply at this rule layer. Liquid asset waiting periods and income maintenance periods are administered by Services Australia outside this rule object: a redundancy lump sum can trigger a 13 to 26 week non-payment period that is not encoded inside amount.

Eligibility Conditions

The eligibility block is an all set, so every item must pass.

1. Age floor: age >= 22. People under 22 are routed to the Youth Allowance job-seeker rule, not this one.
2. Below Age Pension age: meets_age_pension_age = false. Once a person reaches Age Pension age (currently 67), Centrelink moves them off JobSeeker and onto Age Pension.
3. Residency status: in australian_citizen, permanent_resident, special_category_visa, other_eligible_visa. Other visa categories such as bridging visas are not in scope under this rule.
4. Presence: living_in_australia = true. JobSeeker is generally not portable; brief overseas absence is administered separately.
5. Partner status: partner_status = single. Anyone partnered routes to the partnered JobSeeker rule with the lower base of $740.30.
6. Children: dependent_children = false. Single people with dependent children route to the with-child JobSeeker rule with a higher base of $866.00.
7. Assets: assets_total < 314000. The note records that this is the single homeowner cut-off and version one does not split the homeowner and non-homeowner cases (the non-homeowner figure is $566,500 in the underlying Centrelink table).

Required fields for assessment are explicit: age, residency status, partner status, dependent children, fortnightly income, total assets, and living-in-Australia status. Missing any one of those at intake means the rule cannot be evaluated deterministically.

The exclude block lists seven payment values that block this rule. Receiving Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Parenting Payment Single, Parenting Payment Partnered, Austudy, Youth Allowance Student, or Youth Allowance Job Seeker each forces a route to a different rule rather than this one. The conflicts list also records that JobSeeker single no-child cannot coexist with Age Pension single, Age Pension couple, Austudy single no child, or Youth Allowance job seeker single no child within the same evaluation pass.

Mutual obligation requirements layer on top of the eligibility test. The application notes record that the applicant must complete the Job Seeker Snapshot assessment and meet the agreed activity plan (job search activity or approved alternative activity). Failure to meet those obligations leads to payment suspension, but that mechanism sits in compliance administration outside the YAML eligibility block.

How To Apply

Application metadata defines three channels: online, service centre, and phone. The online channel through myGov is the fastest, because the Job Seeker Snapshot assessment runs immediately after the claim is submitted and a provisional decision can be issued within several business days.

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

• identity document (such as a driver licence or passport, with secondary documents that match the Centrelink points test)
• tax file number
• bank account details where the payment will be deposited
• Job Seeker Snapshot assessment, completed online inside the claim flow

Two practical tips help reduce surprises. First, lodge as early as possible after losing work. The waiting period for any liquid assets above the threshold ($5,500 single without dependants) and the income maintenance period for redundancy lump sums both run from the day Centrelink registers the claim, not from the day employment ended, so any delay in lodgement extends the wait to first payment. Second, choose an Employment Services Provider during the claim flow rather than after grant. Once the Job Seeker Snapshot is processed, the provider link unlocks the Workforce Australia online dashboard where mutual obligations are tracked.

Lodge your claim through myGov and Services Australia

Rule-Based Scenarios

Scenario 1: full base, low casual earnings

Kevin is 28, single, no children, an Australian citizen who recently finished a fixed-term contract. Total assets sit at $42,000 (mostly a car and savings). He picks up casual hours at a cafe earning $130 per fortnight. Because $130 sits under the $150 free area, the income test does not trigger. The rule pays the full base of $808.70 per fortnight, equal to about $21,026.20 per year. Kevin also receives the auto-issued Health Care Card and qualifies for Commonwealth Rent Assistance on top once his rent is verified.

Scenario 2: middle band reduction

Stuart is 34, single, with assets of $90,000 in savings outside super (super is generally not counted before Age Pension age). He earns $300 per fortnight in part-time work. Band one applies $53.00 to the $106 between $150 and $256. Band two applies 60 percent of $44 ($300 minus $256) for $26.40. Total reduction is $79.40. JobSeeker estimate is $729.30 per fortnight, on top of which he keeps the part-time wage of $300.

Scenario 3: blocked by exclusion

Grace is 31, single, no children, all residency and asset tests pass. However she is currently receiving Disability Support Pension while working through a temporary review. The exclude block triggers on receiving_payment in disability_support_pension, and JobSeeker is not payable under this rule for that period. The conflicts list also confirms that JobSeeker single no-child cannot coexist with the DSP path during the same assessment.

Scenario 4: above asset cut-off

Bridget is 41, single, no children. She owns a unit and has $338,000 in non-superannuation savings. The eligibility check at assets_total < 314000 fails by $24,000. JobSeeker is not payable. Bridget would need to draw down the savings (for example by paying off mortgage principal or using the savings for a major repair documented to Centrelink) before the asset position falls below the cut-off, after which she could lodge a fresh claim.

Common Mistakes

• Two-tier taper read as one rate: applying a flat 60 cent reduction from the first dollar of earnings. The rule actually has a $150 free area, then 50 cents on the band from $150 to $256, then 60 cents above $256. Mis-applying the bands typically overstates the reduction by $53 per fortnight in the middle band.
• Liquid Assets Waiting Period overlooked: ignoring that recent redundancy money or holiday pay can trigger a 1 to 13 week non-payment wait at the start of the claim. The YAML amount block has no reduces_if for this, but Services Australia administers it outside the rule and lodgement still has to clear that wait.
• Income Maintenance Period after redundancy: assuming a redundancy lump sum is treated like a one-off amount. It is spread across the equivalent fortnights of weekly income, so a 26-week redundancy can suspend payment for up to 26 weeks even though no eligibility item changed.
• Treating Energy Supplement as a separate top-up: the rule note explicitly records that the $808.70 base already includes the Energy Supplement component. Adding another supplement on top double-counts it. There is no extra payment line for energy on a single no-child JobSeeker case.
• Asset cut-off treated as homeowner-versus-renter split: the rule encodes a single hard cut-off at $314,000 in version one. The Services Australia table separately publishes $566,500 for non-homeowners, but that path is not encoded here and a claim assessor would still apply the official non-homeowner figure if the underlying Centrelink record is non-homeowner.
• Mutual obligation under-reporting: failing to log the agreed number of job searches or activity hours in Workforce Australia. Demerits accrue and a single fortnight of three demerits triggers a 100 percent payment suspension for that period, separate from the income test.

Related Benefits

The conflicts list and affects list in this rule define interaction behaviour with other federal payments. Use these links to navigate the surrounding rules in the working-age income support stack.

• JobSeeker Payment - single, with dependent child - the higher-base variant ($866.00) for single applicants whose dependent_children = true; mutually exclusive with this rule.
• JobSeeker Payment - partnered - the lower-base variant ($740.30) for partnered applicants; the partner income test layers on top via preprocessing.
• JobSeeker Payment - single, 55+, 9 months continuous - long-term receipt uplift to $866.00 for applicants 55 or over with at least 9 months of continuous payment.
• Health Care Card (HCC) - auto-issued through the affects list, providing PBS and bulk-billing concessions while on JobSeeker.
• Commonwealth Rent Assistance - single, no dependent child - directly enabled by JobSeeker for renters in the private market.
• Age Pension - single - the transition path once the recipient reaches Age Pension age and meets_age_pension_age = true, replacing JobSeeker.

Frequently Asked Questions