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We have information in different languages about Working Credit
For Centrelink payments and services, you can call our multilingual phone service.
Who it’s for
Working Credit is for anyone getting:
- Youth Allowance as a job seeker
- JobSeeker Payment
- Parenting Payment
- Disability Support Pension
- Carer Payment.
Income Bank is like Working Credit but for full time students on:
How it works
If you’re working you can get a Working Credit. It increases how much you can earn before we start reducing your payments.
We calculate it when you report your income. You don’t need to do anything extra.
How you build Working Credits
You build up Working Credit when your total income is less than $48 per fortnight. This includes paid work and investments. It doesn’t include payments from us.
You can build up a maximum of 48 Working Credits each fortnight.
You can build up a total of 1,000 Working Credits if you’re getting any of the following payments:
You can build up a total of 3,500 Working Credits if you’re getting Youth Allowance as a job seeker.
If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov, sign in now to check your Working Credit balance and history.
How it helps you
If you’re working, it lets you earn more before we reduce your income support payment.
We use each Working Credit you have to offset $1 of employment income. Once your Working Credit balance is zero, your income support payment starts to reduce.
Example of how Working Credit helps Janine
Janine is single, has no children and doesn’t earn an income. Over time, Janine has built up 1,000 Working Credits as part of her JobSeeker payments.
Janine starts a full time job earning $1,600 per fortnight. In the first fortnight the 1,000 Working Credits reduce the amount we count as income from $1,600 to $600. This means Janine gets some JobSeeker Payment that fortnight. Janine’s Working Credit balance is zero.
The next fortnight all of Janine’s income will count. This reduces Janine’s JobSeeker Payment to zero.
When your payments stop
We stop paying you if your income is over the cut off point and you’ve run out of Working Credits.
You may keep your concession card and some other benefits for up to 12 weeks. This may include any of the following:
- Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card
- Language, Literacy and Numeracy Supplement if you’re doing Skills for Education and Employment
- Telephone Allowance.
If you get Family Tax Benefit you’ll need to provide your family income estimate when your main income payment stops. This is so your Family Tax Benefit payments can continue.