There are a few reasons you can lose access to the Age Pension, such as acquiring property or moving in with a partner. But if your circumstances change again, do you need to reapply?
There’s good news and bad news. Getting the bad news out of the way first, Services Australia says, yes, you do need to reapply for the Age Pension after losing it.
The good news is, most of your information should still be with Centrelink, so reapplying should be a much easier your initial application.
Read: September Age Pension review: How much extra will you be paid?
You’ll need to go through the application process again using the Services Australia online portal myGov.
“In most circumstances, the majority of details from your previous claim will be prefilled for you to make reapplying for the Age Pension more streamlined,” finance guru Noel Whittaker told The Sydney Morning Herald.
“You will need to make sure all your details are up to date, including updating your financial circumstances if they have changed since your previous claim,” he said.
“You may also need to provide verification of your current circumstances.”
Read: Changes that affect your retirement income
Simply edit the fields pertinent to whatever circumstances have changed and Centrelink will reassess your claim.
Current Age Pension rate (as of July 2022)
| Per fortnight | Single | Couple each | Couple combined | Couple apart due to ill health |
| Maximum basic rate | $900.80 | $679.00 | $1358 | $900.80 |
| Maximum Pension Supplement | $72.70 | $54.80 | $109.60 | $72.70 |
| Energy Supplement | $14.10 | $10.60 | $21.20 | $14.10 |
| Total | $987.60 | $744.40 | $1488.80 | $987.60 |
Have your circumstances changed recently? Do you have what you need to reapply for the Age Pension? Let us know in the comments section below.
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I am 71 years old and have been denied a health card and pension because my partner earns $120k pa.We dont own a home and rent at$550 wk,I have no other income.Since they took away my pension card and health card I have had to pay $190 for a licence,my medicines have gone from $25 mth to $100 mth and am looking at $1000 to register my car.I have $120k left in my super which is dwindling quickly,I worked and paid taxes for 50 years and feel completely abandoned by the govt.The means test was created in 2015 and is completely out of date for todats expenses.Mr albanese in his election promises said he was going to change the means test from the $92k it was set at in 2015 to $144k which would allow me to survive better but that seems to have turned into another throwaway election promise.Do you think that there might be any action on this front
The sad thing is, Centrelink will cut off all of the pensioner benefits over a small, disputed amount and it then takes forever to get it reinstated and many of the services won’t reimburse for the amounts you are out of pocket. It’s tough when you not only lose you benefits over the dispute, but your costs escalate significantly. Some of the nasty ones like disabling you Opal card are plain awful. You can end up with a car and license cost which if paid, won’t be reimbursed, and a disabled Opal card, so you can’t get into see Centrelink to fix the problem.