{"id":109521,"date":"2025-08-31T22:47:36","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109521\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T22:47:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T22:47:36","slug":"pension-deeming-rates-will-change-next-month-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/109521\/","title":{"rendered":"Pension deeming rates will change next month. Here’s how"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pension deeming<\/a> rates will be increased next month, which may affect your eligibility for the pension or reduce how much you receive.<\/p>\n

This will be the first change to pension deeming rates in five years. <\/p>\n

They were frozen during the pandemic, and successive governments then extended them. <\/p>\n

The changes to the pension deeming rates will come into effect on 20 September. <\/p>\n

Let’s recap what deeming is before discussing the new rates.<\/p>\n

What is deeming? <\/p>\n

Deeming is the method that the government uses to estimate a pensioner’s annual investment income.<\/p>\n

Instead of asking pensioners to report their actual investment returns each year, the government sets two tiers of ‘deemed’ rates of return for everyone. <\/p>\n

The government then applies the deeming rates to the total value of your assets to work out your assumed investment income.<\/p>\n

They add your deemed investment income to your other income, then apply the income test<\/a> to check your eligibility for the age pension.<\/p>\n

You may be eligible for the full pension or a part-pension, depending on the outcome. (And assuming you also pass the assets test<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Financial assets captured under deeming rates include ASX shares, international shares<\/a>, bonds<\/a>, cash at the bank, and some superannuation<\/a> income streams. <\/p>\n

Some financial assets, such as investment properties<\/a>, are excluded. Landlords must report their net rental income each year.<\/p>\n

Benefits of deeming <\/p>\n

Services Australia explains that deeming helps keep your pensioner payment steady. <\/p>\n

Otherwise, your payment would rise and fall each year depending on the performance of your investments. <\/p>\n

If your assets give you a higher rate of return than the deeming rates, you don’t have to report that. (Bonus!)<\/p>\n

Deeming also provides an incentive to invest.<\/p>\n

This is important because many of us choose to invest decades before we reach pension age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deeming means you can choose the right investments for you, without worrying about how they might impact your pension later on.<\/p>\n

Here are the new pension deeming rates <\/p>\n

From 20 September, the lower deeming rate will increase from 0.25% to 0.75%.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The lower deeming rate will apply to the first $64,200 of assets owned by single pensioners and the first $106,200 owned by couples.<\/p>\n

The upper deeming rate will rise from 2.25% to 2.75%. That will apply to the balance of your assets above $64,200 or $106,200. <\/p>\n

The higher rates will naturally increase the deemed investment income attributed to you each year.<\/p>\n

This may impact your eligibility for the age pension or reduce how much you receive.<\/p>\n

According to a statement from the Social Services Minister, Tanya Plibersek:<\/p>\n

Some recipients with financial assets, including part-rate pensioners, can expect to see changes to their payments from changes to deeming rates.<\/p>\n

The pension is going up, too <\/p>\n

The age pension and many other social security payments are adjusted twice per year to keep them in line with inflation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From 20 September, single pensioners will receive an extra $29.70 per fortnight.<\/p>\n

Couples on the pension will receive an extra $22.40 per person, per fortnight.<\/p>\n

Got questions about deeming rates or the pension? <\/p>\n

There is a Centrelink hotline dedicated to helping senior Australians with their questions about the pension or other matters: 132 300.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image source: Getty Images Pension deeming rates will be increased next month, which may affect your eligibility for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,6166,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-109521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-editors-choice","12":"tag-finance","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}