Yes, your super does affect whether you can get the Age Pension and how much you can get in payments. Just like your personal savings and investments, your super affects your Age Pension because Centrelink uses an assets test and an income test.
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.
WILL ACCESSING MY SUPER AFFECT MY CENTRELINK PAYMENT? If you withdraw money from your super fund, you must tell Centrelink within 14 days. Money withdrawn from super is not treated as income for a person receiving a social security payment.
Important things to consider before you withdraw
If you keep your money invested in super it can continue to enjoy earning investment returns, which means you could retire with more. You could pay more tax on investment earnings outside super. Withdrawing super could affect your Government Age Pension entitlement.
The disadvantages of early access to super
Getting money from you super may result in you: paying more tax. paying more child support. getting lower Centrelink payments.
You may be able to take your superannuation as a lump sum payment when you retire. This is usually tax-free from age 60.
Different lump sums are treated in different ways by Centrelink. A lump sum is any one-off amount of money that you may receive for a variety of reasons. Some of these lump sum payments will be included in your income test for the Age Pensions and they may affect the amount of pension that you receive from Centrelink.
Assume, for example, you will need 65 per cent of your pre-retirement income, so if you earn $50,000 now, you might need $32,500 in retirement.
Assets Test
A single homeowner can have up to $656,500 of assessable assets and receive a part pension – for a single non-homeowner the higher threshold is $898,500. For a couple, the higher threshold to $986,500 for a homeowner and $1,228,500 for a non-homeowner.
While the Age Pension provides a safety net in case money runs out, it may not be enough to maintain a comfortable living standard in retirement. This is why some people find investing their super in retirement helps their savings last after their working days are over. For example, by opening an account based pension.
If you are under age 60, you may be required to pay lump sum withdrawal tax, depending on the amount you withdraw and your superannuation tax components. The Low Rate Cap amount actually allows you to receive up to $230,000 of the taxable component tax-free. This is a lifetime (i.e. not annual) indexed cap.
Your super balance continues to grow in retirement
In other words, your super balance can continue to benefit from investment returns in retirement. If you had $300,000 in super and were invested in our Balanced pension option, you would have seen average returns of 8.6% per annum over the last 10 years^.
Once you reach age 65, you can access your Super Benefit at any time whether you have retired or not. There are absolutely no restrictions to accessing your Super Benefit when over 65. Your Super Benefit can be accessed as either a Pension or Lump Sum withdrawal.
We check your bank account information is up to date. We do this to check we paid you the right payment and amount in the past.
The Work Bonus income bank is useful for pensioners who wish to work, particularly those who undertake intermittent or occasional work. Note: from 1 December 2022 to 31 December 2023, a one-off, temporary credit of $4,000 applies to Work Bonus income bank balances.
The inheritance may be exempt from the income test. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that the inheritance won't affect the Age Pension entitlements. What you decide to do with the inheritance may still affect you under the income and assets test.
financial investments. home contents, personal effects and vehicles. real estate, annuities, income streams and superannuation pensions.
If you leave your super in accumulation phase, you are not required to make any withdrawals from it, even if you are retired. Your accumulation balance will simply continue to be invested and (ideally) increase in value over time. Keeping your super in accumulation phase does not prevent you from accessing it.
When you retire you could withdraw your super as a cash payment from your super account. You can open an account-based pension and set-up regular income payments. You can also withdraw smaller cash payments from your super account or account-based pension. The choice is yours.
Withdrawals are paid and taxed as a normal super lump sum. If you're: under 60, this is generally taxed between 17% and 22% over 60, you won't be taxed.