Centrelink’s Payment and Service Finder: How it works

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What payments and services am I eligible for?
How much can I get?
I already get an Age Pension, is there any other assistance?

Searching for information about the Age Pension or other Centrelink payments can be a little like travelling off the beaten track without a map. Or finding yourself up a certain creek without a paddle… if you’ve begun the search you’ll know what I mean.

In case you haven’t heard, Centrelink now comes under the umbrella of Services Australia so any googling for Centrelink will land you at Services Australia.

Hit the main page of the Services Australia website and you will be faced with a selection of options to choose from, posed as the question ‘What can we help with?’ The selection tiles suggest they can help with things like ‘Raising kids’, ‘Living arrangements’ or ‘Ageing’ to name a few.

If you select the ‘Ageing’ tile, you will be faced with yet more choices, each one leading you down a different path and you may end up feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland. But what if you just want to know what you can get? Luckily, there is a way.

What payments and services am I eligible for?

The answer to this question lies with the ‘Payment and service finder’ tool. It’s easy if you know what you are looking for. Start your search by following these three steps:

Step 1

Locate the search function. It’s a white space in the middle of the large blue banner at the top of every page on the Services Australia website

Step 2

Type in ‘Payment finder’ and you will be presented with an online tool that does exactly what it says – find payments you may be eligible for.

There’s a trick here – you must tell it what your circumstances will be, not necessarily what they are now. Say you are preparing for when you reach Age Pension age next month. You should complete the questions as if you are already Age Pension age, otherwise it will not present Age Pension as an option.

Another tricky question is about your ongoing health circumstances. For instance, the option for ‘Carer’ means you are a carer, not you have a carer. If you have a disability or a chronic medical condition, select this too.

Step 3

Once you are happy with the answers, hit ‘submit’ and you will be presented with a list of payments and programs you may be eligible for. Not just Age Pension, you may also be eligible for a Carer Allowance or payments to help with a specific medical condition, concession cards and more.

Learn more about the Carer Allowance and concession cards for seniors and pensioners.

Note: Age Pension age changed to 67 from 1 July 2023.

Learn more about Age Pension age.

How much can I get?

Once you know what you may be eligible for, the next big question is how much?

Let’s assume you are presented with Age Pension as an option, it will have a button ‘Estimate rate now’. Click this and you will be taken to the payment estimator. Finally, you’ve arrived!

Unfortunately the payment estimator has some limitations. The income and asset tests can be quite complex and not all scenarios will be covered. But with a little knowledge you can get a reasonable estimate of what you might be able to receive.

The questions asked by the payment estimator for Age Pension entitlements come in two parts:

Your income: Gross wages, compensation, foreign pensions, income from real estate or your own businesses, and defined benefit income streams all go here. (Note: income from financial investments such as interest, dividends and account-based pensions do not go in this section). If you earn money from working then enter this in the ‘work bonus balance’ field – either $300 or the gross amount you earn per fortnight, whichever is the least. See later example for how the Work Bonus can benefit you.
Your assets: Here you put in all your financial assets, and the market value of assets like vehicles and household contents. Market value means what you could get if you sold the asset, not what the replacement cost would be.

The calculator then adds everything up and applies the income and asset test to your information and provides you with an estimate of the amount of Age Pension you might be entitled to.

Also check SuperGuide’s Age Pension calculator.

Case study: Receiving a part-Pension while still working

Many people are surprised to find they are eligible for at least a part Age Pension. Some mistakenly think they have to actually be retired to be able to claim an Age Pension. Not so, you just have to be under the income and asset test limits.

Using the Payment Finder and estimator you can calculate what you might receive if you continue to work after Age Pension age.

Let’s look at an example:

Brendan

Brendan is a single homeowner who has finished full-time work but would like to stay on a couple of days a week to help his boss out, stay active and keep the social benefits of working. He has about $250,000 of superannuation built up and wants to avoid eating into it too quickly. He has about $120,000 in bank accounts. Brendan’s boss offers him two days a week for a wage of $450 a week.

On the Income page of the estimator Brendan includes his fortnightly employment income of $900 and puts $300 in the ‘Work Bonus’ field. (This means that of the $900 he earns through working, $300 is disregarded, allowing him to keep more of his pension.)

On the Asset page of the estimator Brendan includes his bank accounts, super, household contents of $5000 and his car worth $20,000. This gives him total assets of $395,000.

As he has $370,000 of financial assets, Centrelink will assume he is earning a certain amount of interest on these investments; this is what we call ‘deemed income’. Brendan’s investments are deemed to be earning interest of $277 per fortnight. On top of this, Centrelink will assess $600 of his earned income each fortnight. The estimator works all this out and shows that Brendan could still get a part Age Pension of around $620 per fortnight.

Learn more about deeming and the Age Pension.

I already get an Age Pension, is there any other assistance?

Centrelink administers many payments, programs and services on behalf of government departments. Some payments you may have never heard of. As your circumstances change, it is a good idea to check out what you may be eligible for.

Case study: Glen and Mavis

Glen and Mavis have been on the Age Pension for some years now. Mavis has been unwell due to ongoing medical issues and Glen is providing a lot of care for her and struggling with the extra medical costs. He wonders if they may be eligible for some other assistance.

Using the Payment Finder, he discovers that in addition to their Age Pensions he may be eligible for a Carer Allowance of $136.50 per fortnight and Mavis could get an annual payment of $170 to help with an essential item of medical equipment they use and $170 for the medically required cooling required in their home.

This is an extra $3,889 over the year they didn’t know they were eligible for. The payment finder gives links to each of these payments with information about how to apply for each one.

Learn more about Carer Allowance.