Does Your Partner's Super Count Toward the Age Pension? (Adelaide Retirees' Guide, 2026)

It depends on your partner’s age. If your partner hasn’t yet reached Age Pension age (67), their super sitting in a normal accumulation account is generally not counted in your assets or income test. But the moment your partner turns 67, their entire super balance becomes assessable — even if they never claim a pension payment themselves.

If their super is already paying them an income stream (an account-based pension), it counts regardless of age.

This trips up a lot of Adelaide couples, especially when there’s an age gap between partners. Here’s exactly how it works, using the current Centrelink rules.

Your partner’s situation	Does their super count?
Under 67, super still in accumulation phase, not drawing an income stream	No — exempt from both the assets test and income test
Under 67, but already drawing an income stream from super (e.g. a transition-to-retirement pension)	Yes — assessed as an income stream
67 or over, whether or not they’re claiming Age Pension themselves	Yes — full balance counted, and it’s also “deemed” to earn income

This is why some couples get a nasty surprise: everything’s fine until the younger partner has their 67th birthday, and suddenly the combined assets jump, sometimes enough to reduce or cancel the pension entirely.

Why this catches Adelaide couples off guard

A common scenario locally: one partner retires early from a public sector or corporate job at 60–62, their partner keeps working and hasn’t touched their super yet, and the couple assumes only the retired partner’s assets are assessed. That’s true for a while — but once the younger partner reaches Age Pension age, Services Australia includes their super too, whether they’ve stopped working or not, and whether they’re getting any Centrelink payment themselves or not.

If you’re planning around this, it’s worth checking both partners’ birthdates against 67 (the current qualifying age) well before you lodge a claim, not after.

What actually gets counted once both partners are of age

Once you and your partner have both reached Age Pension age, Centrelink includes:

Super account balances (accumulation and pension phase)
Account-based pensions, which are also deemed to earn income under fixed deeming rates
Investment properties, shares, term deposits, managed funds
Household contents, vehicles, boats, caravans
Business assets and cryptocurrency

Your family home is excluded, no matter its value.

Current deeming rates (from 20 March 2026)

First $64,200 (single) or $106,200 (couple, combined) is deemed to earn 1.25% p.a.
Anything above that is deemed to earn 3.25% p.a.

Deeming applies regardless of what your super or investments are actually earning — Centrelink uses these flat assumed rates for the income test.

Age Pension asset limits for couples, from 1 July 2026

These are the combined limits (yours plus your partner’s assessable assets) once both of you are of pension age:

For the full Age Pension:

Couple, homeowner: $499,000
Couple, non-homeowner: $766,000

Part-pension cut-off (pension reduces by $3 per fortnight for every $1,000 over the full-pension limit, then cancels here):

Couple, homeowner: $1,102,500
Couple, non-homeowner: $1,369,500

If your combined assessable assets sit between the full-pension limit and the cut-off point, you’ll likely still receive a part pension — it’s not all-or-nothing.

“My partner is younger than me and still working — should I worry?”

Not immediately, but it’s worth planning for. A few things to know:

Their accumulation super is invisible to Centrelink for now. If you’re already on the Age Pension and your partner is under 67 and working, their super in a standard accumulation account isn’t assessed.
Their employment income might still count, though. The income test looks at both partners’ income, not just super.
Plan for their 67th birthday. When that date arrives, their super balance gets added to your combined assets in one hit. If that pushes you over a threshold, your pension can drop or stop. Some couples choose to review their situation with a Centrelink Financial Information Service (FIS) officer or a financial adviser a year or so out from that birthday, so there are no surprises.

Strategies people commonly ask about

Can we split contributions to reduce assessable assets? Contributing to a younger, not-yet-eligible partner’s super can keep money out of the assets test for longer, since it stays exempt until they turn 67. This is a genuine strategy, but it locks the money away in super, so weigh that against needing accessible savings.

Can we gift assets to family to get under the threshold? You can gift up to $10,000 in a financial year, capped at $30,000 over five years, without it affecting your pension. Gift more than that, and Centrelink still counts the excess as an assessable asset (and deems income on it) for five years from the date of the gift.

What if my partner’s super is already paying them an income stream? Then it’s assessed now, under the income test, regardless of their age. It’s the “still in accumulation, not yet drawing a pension” situation that gets the age-based exemption — not super in general.

Where to check your own numbers or get help in Adelaide

Services Australia Financial Information Service (FIS): free, confidential appointments to help you understand how your assets and income will be assessed — available by phone or in person at Adelaide service centres.
Centrelink Age Pension Calculator (via Services Australia or SuperGuide): useful for a rough estimate before you commit to any strategy.
COTA SA and Uniting Communities: offer general retirement and pension information sessions for South Australian seniors.
A licensed financial adviser: worth it if you’re close to a threshold and want to model different scenarios (e.g. gifting, spouse contributions, or timing your claim around a partner’s birthday).

Does Your Partner’s Super Count Toward the Age Pension? (Adelaide Retirees’ Guide, 2026)