Being entitled to an Age Pension doesn’t mean you’ll automatically receive your fortnightly payments from Day One of your retirement.

Being entitled doesn’t even mean your application will be successful. There are quite a few hurdles to overcome if you are planning, or in the midst of, an application. There are five main reasons why Age Pension applications can fail I would like to share how to avoid them.

Don’t double-declare your super and your income stream
Centrelink asset and income tests can seem complex. But one hard and fast rule is that you do need to declare (under assets) your superannuation account balance. Centrelink will then deem the amount this balance earns (see current deeming rates here ). What you don’t have to do is to declare the income you drawdown from your super, in the form of an Account-Based Pension or other type of income stream. Yes, this is income, but as Centrelink has already counted it (by deeming an income on your assets), it doesn’t do this twice. Many applicants are surprised to get a knockback due to failing the income test. Some shouldn’t fail it, but they have incorrectly declared income already taken into account.