Payment for older Australians
Age Pension provides income support and access to a range of concessions for older Australians.
This includes a Pensioner Concession Card. This card gives you cheaper health care and lowers
the cost of some goods and services.
There are rules you need to meet to be able to get Age Pension.
Age rules
If your birthdate is before 1 July 1952, you need to be at least 65 years old.
From 1 July 2017 the age you must be to get Age Pension will go up by 6 months every 2 years,
until 1 July 2023
Residence rules
To be eligible for Age Pension you must meet residence rules.
On the day you claim, you must be:
an Australian resident, and
in Australia.
An Australian resident is a person who is living in Australia and is either an Australian citizen or the
holder of a permanent visa or protected Special Category visa.
You also need to have been an Australian resident for at least 10 years to qualify for Age Pension.
For at least five of these years, there must be no break in your residence.
What may be different?
You may be able to get Age Pension if you have been an Australian resident for less than 10
years. For example, if you are:
a refugee or former refugee
a woman whose partner died while you were both Australian residents and you have been
an Australian resident for two years immediately before claiming Age Pension
getting Widow Allowance, Widow B Pension or Partner Allowance when you reach age
pension age.
You don’t need to be an Australian resident or in Australia on the day you claim if you are
transferring to Age Pension from another income support payment.
If you don’t meet the residence rules but you’ve lived or worked in a country that has a social
security agreement with Australia, the agreement may help you to claim.
Claiming Age Pension
You can claim Age Pension online through your Centrelink online account.
You can also visit a service centre. You will need to complete a claim form and an income and
assets form and may need to give us some extra forms any other documents we’ve asked for.
Unless we already have proof of who you are, you will need to visit a service centre and show your
identity documents.
If you already get a Centrelink payment
We’ll write to you 9 weeks before you reach age pension age and tell you what you can do to
transfer to Age Pension.
Changes in your circumstances
We need to know about changes that could reduce your payment. You need to tell us within 14
days about any changes.
For example, you must tell us if:
your address changes
you and/or your partner increase your income
you and/or your partner increase the value of your assets or your investments change
you start or stop living with your partner
your partner dies
you go to live outside Australia, or
you travel overseas for a holiday.
You can tell us your changes through our self service options. Make sure your details are up to
date on myGov.
If you don’t tell us about these changes, we may pay you too much. If this happens you’ll probably
have to pay the money back.
If you deliberately don’t tell us about changes, we could charge you with fraud
For more information
go to humanservices.gov.au/agepension for more information in English
go to humanservices.gov.au/yourlanguage where you can read, listen to or watch videos
with information in your language
call 131 202 to speak with us in your language about Centrelink payments and services
call the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National) on 131 450 to speak with us in
your language about Medicare and Child Support payments and services
visit a service centre.
Note: calls from your home phone to ‘13’ numbers from anywhere in Australia are charged at a
fixed rate. That rate may vary from the price of a local call and may also vary between telephone
service providers. Calls to ‘1800’ numbers from your home phone are free. Calls from public and
mobile phones may be timed and charged at a higher rate.
Disclaimer
The information contained in this publication is intended only as a guide to payments and services.
It’s your responsibility to decide if you wish to apply for a payment and to make an application with
regard to your particular circumstances.
