How can I top up my super pension?

For various reasons, it’s common to continue making super contributions when you have already started a pension with your super savings.

Perhaps you’re drawing a transition-to-retirement pension or an account-based pension while you continue to work and make concessional contributions. Maybe you’re retired and taking advantage of the opportunity to contribute to your super until you reach 75. Or perhaps you’d like to make a downsizer contribution.

Contributing while drawing a pension raises a common question. How do you get your new contributions into your pension account? Contributions and transfers from another super account can’t be added to an existing pension, so additional steps are required.

There are two main options. You can:

• Use your accumulated contributions to start a new pension alongside your existing account, maintaining multiple pensions
• Stop your existing pension, combine the balance with your accumulated contributions and then recommence a new, larger pension.

If you have a lifetime or fixed-term super pension, it may not be possible or favourable to stop the pension. This article focuses only on account-based pensions.

Before deciding which approach to take, it may be important to consider how the process could affect the tax components of your savings.

Free eBook

Retirement planning for beginners

Our easy-to-follow guide walks you through the fundamentals, giving you the confidence to start your own retirement plans.

"*" indicates required fields

X/Twitter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

First name*

First

Email address*

Background

Accumulation accounts

Prior to starting a pension from your super fund, your super is held in an accumulation account. Most public offer super funds will permit you to have more than one accumulation account in the same fund, but in a self-managed super fund you can only have one per member. In the accumulation phase, investment earnings are taxable at the rate of 15%.

When you make a non-concessional contribution, it is added to the tax-free component of your accumulation account. Investment earnings and concessional contributions make up the taxable component. Any withdrawals are drawn proportionately from the taxable and tax-free components that exist on the day of the withdrawal.

Pension accounts

No matter the type of super fund, you can have multiple pension accounts. Investment earnings on retirement phase pension accounts are tax-free, while earnings on transition-to-retirement pensions remain taxable at the same rate as accumulation accounts.

You can’t add more contributions to a pension or transfer additional money from an accumulation account to a pension once it has commenced.

The tax-free and taxable proportions are set on the day you open the pension and remain fixed. For example, if you start a pension with a 100% tax-free component, it will remain a 100% tax-free component until the account is closed.

The tax components of your super are important if your account will be paid to adult children or other non-dependent beneficiaries after you pass away, because the death benefits tax will be payable on the taxable portion. A recontribution strategy can help maximise the tax-free component.

Option 1: Start a new pension

If you want to transfer more money from your accumulation account into a pension, the simplest option is to start a new pension account.

To do this, you need to fill in an application with your super fund for the type of pension you want to open. This can usually be done online. The application will ask where money should be transferred from to start your new pension. Here you can nominate the accumulation account that you’ve added your contributions to.

Manage your retirement savings with confidence – for free

Get practical guidance from independent experts to help you make the most of your finances in retirement with a free SuperGuide account.

Find out more

Once the application is complete, you will have another pension account that is managed separately from the one (or more) you already have. You need to withdraw at least the minimum annual payment from each pension and choose investment options and beneficiaries for each of them.

Keeping your accounts separate from one another can be helpful in some situations. For example, if you want to keep taxable and tax-free components apart during a recontribution strategy or you want to leave a tax-free pension to a non-dependent beneficiary and a taxable pension to a dependent who will not be liable for tax on the payment.

Option 2: Commute an existing pension and start a new, larger pension

Instead of starting a second pension, you can arrange for your existing pension to be commuted (stopped) and rolled back into the accumulation account that holds your contributions.

Once the entire amount you want to use for the new pension is combined in your accumulation account, you can start your new pension.

The process is generally as follows:

• Make your planned contributions to your accumulation account
• Complete a request for your super fund to close your existing pension and add the remaining balance to your accumulation account (either online or with a paper form)
• Your fund will make any required minimum withdrawal to you from your pension before closing your account. The minimum is pro-rated for the proportion of the financial year your pension was open and considers any minimum payments you have already received
• Complete an application for your new pension account (either online or with a paper form).

Be aware that the tax components in your pension and accumulation account will mix together if you complete this process. A public offer super fund will generally allow you to open a second accumulation account if required to keep tax components apart, but an SMSF can’t hold more than one accumulation account per member.

Need to know

If you want to open a second accumulation account with your fund, you need to provide them with clear instructions. Super funds are required to merge multiple accumulation accounts held by the same member if it is in the member’s best interests – so without instructions from you clarifying your wishes, the fund may go ahead and combine your accounts.

Supercharge your retirement

Get pension and retirement tips and strategies with our free monthly newsletter.

"*" indicates required fields

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

First name*

First

Email address*

The transfer balance cap

The transfer balance cap places a limit on the amount you can add to the tax-free retirement phase of super. In 2025–26, the general transfer balance cap is $2 million. If you started a retirement phase pension before 1 July 2025, your personal cap is lower and can be viewed online via the ATO service using myGov.

Many readers express concerns about closing and restarting pensions and the transfer balance cap, wondering if starting new accounts will continue to add to the amount of the cap they have consumed, and take them above the limit.

It is important to monitor your transfer balance cap, but there is a simple process to avoid double-counting of the same money when you move back and forth from retirement phase to accumulation phase.

Any amount you remove from an existing retirement income stream by transferring back to accumulation phase or cashing a lump sum is subtracted from your transfer balance account. This makes space under your cap for you to start a new pension.

Other considerations and possibilities

Maintaining multiple pension accounts can add to your costs. Check how your super fund charges fees for pensions and whether any additional cost for maintaining more than one pension is worthwhile.

If your fund has lower percentage-based fees for higher balances, it’s worth asking if they can use the combined balance of all your accounts to determine your charges instead of having them applied per account. You may like to shop around to find a fund with a fee structure that suits you better.

If you decide to commute an existing pension that was initially established as a reversionary pension, so it automatically passes to your spouse, you may want to add a reversionary nomination to your new pension.

If you have reached your transfer balance cap and have more super you can’t add into pensions, or you want to continue to make contributions, you will need to maintain an accumulation account. You’ll need to select investment options and nominate beneficiaries for that account just as you do for your pension(s).

Maintaining multiple accounts and making optimal choices can be complex, so it may be worth getting advice from a licensed financial planner.