‘I moved from disability to the Age Pension and my payments dropped! What happened?’

Q. How does Centrelink work out the income test? I have been on Disability Support Pension since 2007 and now have just reached Age Pension age. I gave them all my superannuation and bank details, and Centrelink have come up with income of $7,859.59 a year. My super balance was $268,000 and bank balance around $5,000. It’s a waste of time trying to get any information out of them. So my pension has dropped from $916 to $861 per fortnight. I’m confused. I’m single and a home owner, with assets of $3,500.

A. If you are not earning any income, Centrelink will simply apply the deeming test to your financial assets which you say are $273,000. If you go to the deeming calculator on my website you will find this sum gives you a deemed income of $312 a fortnight. If you then put this number in the ‘income per fortnight’ column on my Age Pension calculator you will see that your pension should be $875.70 a fortnight. These figures include supplements, so the numbers appear close to what you are getting.

If you have a question for Starts at 60’s money experts, email it to [email protected].