DIY Superannuation Fund assets and income do not count as assets for Centrelink purposes until Aged or Service Pension age. A husband or wife may receive a full Centrelink age pension and Spouse pension when one is pension age, while the younger partner has all assets in the Fund.

There are a number of strategies that you can take to enhance Centrelink payments, depending on the pension you have.

Allocated Pensions

These are considered to be assets by Centrelink. However, for Centrelink and Income Tax purposes only the excess over the purchase cost of the pension spread over your life expectancy is considered to be income. Centrelink and the Australian Tax Office can have quite different treatment of the income calculations.

Aged Pension From Centrelink