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

Whether your partner’s super counts toward the Age Pension depends entirely on their age and whether they’ve started drawing an income stream. If your partner is under 67 and their super is still sitting in an accumulation account, Centrelink doesn’t count it in your assets or income test. Once your partner turns 67 — or starts drawing an account-based pension at any age — their full super balance becomes assessable, even if they never claim a pension payment themselves.

This distinction is the single biggest reason partner’s super and the Age Pension calculations catch Adelaide couples off guard, especially when there’s an age gap between partners. Below is exactly how Services Australia applies the rules, using the current 2026 thresholds.

Your partner’s situation	Does their super count toward the Age Pension?
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 (e.g. 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

Why Partner’s Super and the Age Pension Rules Catch Adelaide Couples Off Guard

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

If you’re planning around how partner’s super affects the Age Pension, check both partners’ birthdates against 67 (the current qualifying age) well before you lodge a claim, not after.

What Gets Counted Once Both Partners Are of Pension Age

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

Super account balances (accumulation and pension phase)
Account-based pensions, 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 from the assets test, no matter its value.

Current Deeming Rates (From 20 March 2026)

Deeming rates determine how much income Centrelink assumes your and your partner’s super and other financial assets are earning, regardless of the actual return:

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.

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 isn’t all-or-nothing.

“My Partner Is Younger and Still Working — Should I Worry About Their Super and the Age Pension?”

Not immediately, but it’s worth planning for:

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. The income test looks at both partners’ income, not just super.
Plan for their 67th birthday. When that date arrives, their super balance is added to your combined assets in one hit. If that pushes you over a threshold, your pension can drop or stop. Many couples 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 for managing partner’s super and the Age Pension exposure, 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.

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