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Once you’ve checked if you’re eligible for Age Pension, you’ll need to prepare some information before starting your claim. If you’re not sure whether you’re eligible, read more about who can get it.
.Check when you can claim
You can submit your claim in the 13 weeks before you reach Age Pension age.
If you already get an eligible payment, we’ll write to you 13 weeks before you reach Age Pension age. We'll tell you what you need to do to apply to transfer to Age Pension.
If we rejected a previous claim and your situation has changed, you can reclaim. There’s no limit to the number of times you can claim Age Pension.
Prepare your supporting documents
To confirm what you tell us in your claim, we’ll ask you to provide supporting documents. Getting your documents ready will make it easier for you to claim Age Pension. The documents we need from you will depend on your circumstances. If you’re a member of a couple, we’ll ask you to provide documents for both of you.
If you claim online, we’ll give you a list of documents to submit with your claim. A paper claim has a checklist, to ensure you give us all the documents we ask for. This will help us assess your claim faster.
Read more about which documents you must give us before you can submit your claim.
What to do if you’ve lived outside Australia
You usually need to be an Australian resident and in Australia to claim Age Pension. However, social security agreements may help you claim if you’re living or have lived and worked in certain countries.
If you get Age Pension, you may need to take steps to claim a pension from another country. This is if you have lived or worked in a country other than Australia.
International Services can do both of the following:
- help you claim a pension from any country with a social security agreement with Australia
- advise on how to claim a pension from a country without an agreement.
Use the support we offer
We offer support to help you with your claim.
Financial support
If you’re not sure how your finances may affect your eligibility, use our Financial Information Service. It’s free, and can inform and educate you about financial matters.
Our Community Engagement Officers can help you access the services you need if you’re having a difficult time.
Service support
You may be able to get Carer Allowance as well as Age Pension. Carer Allowance is for people who give additional daily care to someone who has a disability, serious illness, or is frail aged.
In some situations, you can choose to get Carer Payment or Age Pension. Read more about payments for carers.
Nominee support
Consider whether you want someone to deal with us on your behalf. We can help you set up a nominee arrangement. You can authorise a person or organisation to enquire, act or get payments for you. This doesn’t prevent you from dealing with us yourself.
Translation support
You can read about Age Pension in your own language. We also have other translated information to help you learn about our payments and services.
If you need to talk to someone in your language, you can use our qualified interpreters.