The liquid assets waiting period is between 1 and 13 weeks. It applies if you have funds equal to or more than either: $5,500 if you're single with no dependants. $11,000 if have a partner or you're single with dependants.
You and your partner must have no more than $5,000 in combined readily available funds. This includes any liquid assets you can sell. Liquid assets include cash you have on hand, money you have in the bank and financial investments you have. They also include gifts and other money available to you at short notice.
Centrelink assesses your income from financial assets (e.g. bank accounts and shares etc) not by the actual income you receive but by deeming. Centrelink deems you to earn 0.25% p.a. on the first $53,600 (single) or $89,000 (couple) of financial assets and 2.25% p.a. on all financial assets above that level.
You have savings or other money
If you or your partner have liquid assets over certain limits, you may have to wait 1 to 13 weeks. Liquid assets are any funds readily available to you or your partner. This includes money owed by your or your partner's employer. Read about liquid assets waiting periods.
What we mean is – while Centrelink don't have the power to spot check your personal bank account, they do conduct cross checks with other Government agencies and use data-matching to check that we're all doing the right thing. These processes help them identify and investigate any cases of possible welfare fraud.
A payment to help students with the cost of moving from regional or remote areas for tertiary study. The Tertiary Access Payment (TAP) is a one off payment of up to $5,000. It's to help eligible students with the cost of moving to study.
If you do report regularly, you must tell us on or before your reporting date, of the period when the gift happens. If you don't, we may overpay you. If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov, sign in now to report gifts, sales or transfers.
If you need to repay money, we'll always send you a letter. The letter will show how much you were overpaid and explain why you owe money. The letter will also include a due date when you need to start repaying the money.
Pay down debt
By paying off your credit card, personal loan, home loan or any other debt, you will reduce the value of your assessable assets and boost your rate of pension. For example, paying off $50,000 of debt could increase your pension by $3,900 per year.
Centrelink requires details of your income and assets to determine your eligibility for income support and at which rate it should be paid. You will need to advise Centrelink of the balance of your bank account, investments, assets you hold and any additional income you earn.
For singles, the test threshold is $5500. For singles with children, it's $11,000. Depending on the value of someone's 'liquid assets', and how far it puts them above these thresholds, JobSeeker payments can be delayed until a time they are deemed eligible to receive them, which can be up to 13 weeks.
The bonus will be paid to workers providing care and support in Government subsidised home care and to residential aged care workers. The payments will be for clinical care workers and expanded to all those providing direct care, food or cleaning services in Government subsidised residential care.
Centrelink offer new parents payments of up to $2000. There are 3 ways you can access this cash: The most common payment option to support new parents is through Centrelink's Family Tax Benefit. If you already receive this, you could be eligible for up to $2091.84 in additional payments.
Carer Supplement is an annual payment of $600 for each eligible payment you get. You'll get this on top of your regular payment.
Centrelink False Claims
Giving false information on relationship status, disability status, or understating income with an aim of receiving benefits from the welfare or social security warrants a cause for action.
Centrelink Audit can generally go as far back as Centrelink want it to. Centrelink can commence legal proceedings against you at any time, as there is no longer a statute of limitations.
There are no laws limiting the amount of cash you can keep at home. This makes sense as many businesses, especially retail stores, keep large amounts of money with them merely as floating cash.
On 1 December 2022, a one-off $4,000 income credit was added to the Work Bonus income bank of those at least pension age and in receipt of an Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Carer Payment or certain Veterans entitlement. Prior to 1 December 2022, the Work Bonus income bank was capped at $7,800.
We count your superannuation both: in the assets test - the value is the balance on your latest statement. in the income test under the deeming rules.
But some of your assets are also 'deemed' to earn income and so they may be viewed in two ways at once by Centrelink. Your car is an asset. Unlike your primary residence, it is not exempt from the assets test. It is, however, not deemed, so there is no income attributed to this asset.
Taking money out of superannuation doesn't affect payments from us. But what you do with the money may. For instance we'll count it in your income and assets tests if you either: use it to buy an income stream.