The Age Pension assets test explained

The assets test adds up almost everything you own, apart from your home, and compares the total with a free area. If your assets are under the free area, the test has no effect. Above it, your pension reduces by $3 a fortnight for every $1,000 of extra assets until it cuts out altogether.

What counts as an asset

Assessable assets include bank accounts and term deposits, shares and managed funds, superannuation once you have reached Age Pension age, investment properties, business assets, cars, boats and caravans, and household contents. Contents are valued at what they would fetch if sold, not what they cost, so most people’s contents come to far less than the insured value.

What is not counted

Your principal home is exempt, along with up to two hectares of the land it sits on. Superannuation held by a partner who is still under Age Pension age is also exempt until they reach it, and so are pre-paid funeral products and a funeral bond up to the allowable limit.

Free areas and cut-offs from 1 July 2026

• Single homeowner: full pension up to $333,000, cuts out at $733,500
• Single non-homeowner: full pension up to $600,000, cuts out at $1,000,500
• Couple homeowner, combined: full pension up to $499,000, cuts out at $1,102,500
• Couple non-homeowner, combined: full pension up to $766,000, cuts out at $1,369,500

Non-homeowners have a higher free area because the value of a home is not being counted for them.

How much can you have in the bank?

There is no separate limit on savings. Money in the bank is simply one of your financial assets, so what matters is your total assessable assets against the figures above. Bear in mind that savings are also deemed to earn income for the income test, so a large balance can affect both tests at once.

See the assets test applied to your figures

Enter your financial assets and other assets in the simple estimator and it will show the free area, the reduction and the resulting rate side by side with the income test.