How it works

You’ll have $300 credit added to your Work Bonus balance each fortnight. The maximum Work Bonus balance you can accrue is $11,800 credit.

Work Bonus isn’t an extra payment you get, it lets you keep more of your pension if you’re working. It’s an incentive for older Australians to participate in the workforce by offsetting some of your income. You don’t need to apply for the Work Bonus. We’ll apply it to your eligible income if you meet all the eligibility rules. All you need to do is declare your income.

You can use your Centrelink online account through myGov to see your Work Bonus balance.

If you work

If you work, we’ll apply your Work Bonus balance to offset your Work Bonus eligible income. We’ll do this before we apply the income test. If there is income left over after applying your Work Bonus balance, it will be included in your income test.

When your Work Bonus eligible income is less than $300 a fortnight, we’ll reduce it to zero. We’ll add any Work Bonus left over to your Work Bonus balance.

If you have a partner and they have employment income, their assessable income may also change with the Work Bonus. Read about Work Bonus and your partner’s income.

If you don’t work

If you don’t work, you’ll have $300 credit added to your Work Bonus balance each fortnight until it reaches the maximum of $11,800 credit. You can use your Work Bonus balance to offset eligible income if you start working.

What these terms mean

For the Work Bonus, we use the following definitions.

Work Bonus

The Work Bonus is a scheme that helps reduce the amount of your employment income that counts towards the income test for your pension. This means you can earn more from working without it affecting your pension payment amount as much.

Work Bonus eligible income

This is the income you earn from working that can be offset by the Work Bonus. It includes wages, salary and other employment income.

Work Bonus balance

This is the amount of Work Bonus you have built up. Every fortnight, we add Work Bonus credit up to a maximum credit amount of $11,800. The balance is like an account where the credit is used to reduce the amount of your work income that counts towards the income test for your pension.

Income test

We assess your and your partner’s income from all sources to work out if we can pay you and how much.