{"id":253009,"date":"2025-10-31T10:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T10:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/253009\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T10:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T10:40:06","slug":"more-australians-living-off-superannuation-than-the-pension-in-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/253009\/","title":{"rendered":"More Australians living off superannuation than the pension in retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A rising number of Australians are relying on their superannuation<\/a> as their main source of income in retirement<\/a> instead of the pension<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The Retirement and Retirement Intentions report<\/a>, published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Friday, shows 35% of retired men aged 45 years and over relied mainly on their superannuation to fund their retirement living expenses in FY25, up from 33% in FY23. <\/p>\n

The data showed that 42% of retired men relied on the pension as their main source of income, down substantially from 47% in FY23. <\/p>\n

Retired women aged over 45 years are also increasingly relying on their superannuation to fund their golden years. Superannuation was the main source of income for 23% of retired women in FY25, up from 21% in FY23. <\/p>\n

The pension was the main source of income for 41% of retired women in FY25 \u2014 the same level as FY23. <\/p>\n

The ABS said: <\/p>\n

Retirees are increasingly relying on superannuation as their main source of income. <\/p>\n

Between 2014-15 and 2024-25, the proportion of retired people with superannuation as their main source of income has increased from 20% to 28%.<\/p>\n

Financial security is the key determining factor as to when people choose to retire, the ABS survey found. <\/p>\n

However, retired women are much more financially reliant on their partners during retirement. <\/p>\n

The ABS noted that 30% of retired women relied on their partner’s income to fund their living expenses, compared to 9% of retired men. <\/p>\n

How many Aussies are in retirement? <\/p>\n

There were 4.5 million Australians aged over 45 years living in retirement in FY25, representing 42% of the population in this age group. <\/p>\n

The compares to 4.2 million, or 40% of the population aged over 45 years, in FY23. <\/p>\n

Most people entering retirement today are baby boomers, who were born between 1945 and 1964.<\/p>\n

The youngest baby boomers are 61 years old, which means this entire generation has reached the superannuation preservation age<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At preservation age, Australians who are retired permanently can gain full access to their superannuation savings. <\/p>\n

Depending on when they were born, they are not eligible for the pension until ages 65 to 67. <\/p>\n

For those born on or after 1 January 1957, the age of pension eligibility is 67 years. <\/p>\n

Those who continue to work after preservation age can have partial access to their superannuation, if they like, via a transition-to-retirement (TTR) income stream. <\/p>\n

This allows them to choose to work part-time, with their superannuation income stream supplementing a lower work income. <\/p>\n

According to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), $132.5 billion in superannuation benefits was paid out in FY25. <\/p>\n

That’s a 12.8% increase on FY24<\/a>. <\/p>\n

APRA said: <\/p>\n

This increase was the result of lump sum payments rising by 14.3 per cent to $73.3 billion and pension payments increasing by 11.0 per cent to $59.2 billion.<\/p>\n

How much superannuation do you need for retirement? <\/p>\n

Australia’s Retirement Standard<\/a> says couples need $690,000 and singles need $595,000 in superannuation by age 67 to fund a ‘comfortable’ retirement.<\/p>\n

They also need a part-pension and unencumbered home ownership <\/p>\n

The Association of Super Funds of Australia (ASFA), which compiles the Retirement Standard, defines a comfortable lifestyle as enough funds to cover the basics plus top level private health insurance, many exercise and leisure activities, occasional restaurant meals, a domestic holiday every year, and an international holiday every seven years.<\/p>\n

ASFA estimates that a comfortable lifestyle costs $75,319 per year for couples and $53,289 for singles<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A ‘modest’ retirement requires just $100,000 in superannuation, plus a part pension and debt-free home ownership.<\/p>\n

Living expenses for a modest retirement are $66,269 for couples and $49,044 for singles.<\/p>\n

A 30-year-old earning $75,000 per year for life will have enough superannuation for a comfortable retirement following the increase in the Super Guarantee to 12% of wages<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A rising number of Australians are relying on their superannuation as their main source of income in retirement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253010,"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-253009","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\/253009","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=253009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}