Income support for older Australians

Australia’s social security system, administered by Services Australia, aims to support people who cannot, or cannot fully, support themselves, by providing targeted payments and assistance. Income support payments are subject to means-tested arrangements.

This page examines trends in income support receipt for people aged 65 and over, and the main payment types they receive. Income support receipt for people aged under 65 is included in Income support payments for the working age population.

Unless otherwise stated, income support data are sourced from Department of Social Services Income Support Recipients – Monthly Time Series from January 2012 to March 2025 (DSS 2025).

How many older Australians receive income support?

The Australian Government provides a range of income support payments for people aged 65 and over, with Age Pension the most common payment for this age group. However, in recent years there have been steep increases in receipt of specific payments (such as JobSeeker Payment and Disability Support Pension (DSP)) for people aged 65–69. This is mainly due to increases to the qualifying age for Age Pension from 65 to 67 years which have been implemented incrementally between 2017 and 2023 (see Age Pension). 

As at 28 March 2025, 2.9 million people aged 65 years and over were receiving income support payments, equating to 62% of the population aged 65 and over (Figure 1).

Among the 2.9 million people aged 65 years and over receiving income support payments:

• 91% or 2.7 million were receiving Age Pension
• 9.5% (277,000 people) were receiving other income support payments including DSP (153,000 people), Carer Payment (66,400 people), and JobSeeker Payment (54,500 people).
  
  

Trends in receiving income support

The number of people aged 65 and over receiving income support has increased over the last decade from 2.3 million in March 2012 to 2.9 million in March 2025 (except for a slight dip in 2017 reflecting changes to the Age Pension asset tests from January 2017). This growth has driven the overall increase in the number of people aged 16 and over receiving income support from 4.8 million in March 2012 to 5.3 million in March 2025. However, when taking into account population growth for the 65 and over population over this period (49% increase between March 2012 and March 2025), the proportion of people aged 65 years and over receiving income support has declined from 72% to 62% between 2012 and 2025. This is consistent with the declining receipt of income support for the population aged 16–64 (see Income support payments for the working age population).

Receipt of Age Pension has also declined over this period, from 70% to 56% of the population aged 65 and over. The rate of decline was steepest for people aged 65–69 – a 34-percentage point decline between March 2012 and March 2025 (from 60% to 26%). This compares with a 12-percentage point decline (from 78% to 66%) for people aged 70–84 and increasing receipt for people aged 85 and over (from 60% to 80%), as shown in Figure 1.

The declining receipt of income support among older Australians reflects a range of economic, social and policy changes over the last decade, including:

• policy changes to Age Pension, such as increasing the qualifying age for the Age Pension from 65 in 2017 to 67 by 2023 (see Age Pension) and changes to the asset test in January 2017 (including an increase to the assets ‘test free area’, that is, the amount of assets an individual can have without their pension being affected)
• increased superannuation savings, with mandatory superannuation contributions since the 1990s resulting in larger retirement savings. More people retired with superannuation/private pension as a main source of income in 2022–23 than in 2014–15 (29% compared with 20%, respectively, for people aged 67 years and over; ABS 2024: Table 6)
• longer workforce participation – for example there were twice as many people aged 65 and over employed full-time in March 2025 than in March 2012 (353,000 compared with 171,000, respectively or 7.5% compared with 5.4% of the population aged 65 and over, respectively; ABS 2025: Table 1).

Reflecting the above-mentioned policy changes of increases to the qualifying age for Age Pension, there have been large increases in receipt of specific payments (although not large enough to offset the decline in Age Pension recipients) for people aged 65–69 between September 2017 and March 2025 (Figure 1). For example, the number of people receiving:

• DSP increased by 148% from 40,500 to 101,000 (or from 3.4% to 7.4% of the population aged 65–69)
• Carer Payment by 46% increased from 23,900 to 34,900 (or from 2.0% to 2.6%)
• Newstart Allowance/JobSeeker Payment increased nine-fold (by 923%) from 5,300 to 54,500 (from 0.4% to 4.0%).

These increases are much larger than for people aged 16–64. Between September 2017 and March 2025, the number of people aged 16–64 receiving:

• DSP decreased by 4.2% from 700,000 to 670,000 (or from 4.4% to 3.8% of the population aged 16–64)
• Carer Payment increased by 16% from 221,000 to 256,000 (or from 1.4% to 1.5%)
• Newstart Allowance/JobSeeker Payment increased by 2.6% from 800,000 to 821,000 (although decreasing from 5.0% to 4.7% of the population aged 16–64).

Characteristics of people receiving Age Pension

As at 28 March 2025, among people receiving Age Pension:   

• women were more likely to receive Age Pension than men – 1.5 million and 1.2 million respectively, or 58% and 53% of the corresponding population aged 65 and over (Figure 1)
• receipt increased with increasing age – from 26% of the population aged 65–69, to 59% of those aged 70–74, and 80% of the population aged 85 and over (Figure 1). In terms of the distribution of Age Pension recipients, around half (51% or 1.4 million) were aged 70–79, compared with 18% aged 85 years and over (Figure 2)
• 2 in 3 (67% or 1.8 million) received a full-rate payment (Figure 2). This has increased over the last decade from an average of 59% between 2012 and 2016, 62% between 2017 and April 2020, and 67% in May 2020. It has since remained relatively stable (average of 68% between May 2020 and September 2024; DSS 2025)
• nearly all (97% or 2.6 million) had no declared earnings from employment in the preceding fortnight (Figure 2)
• 30,600 aged 65 years and over (47%) identified as First Nations (see Income and finance of First Nations people; DSS 2025).

Where do I go for more information?

For more information on older Australians receiving income support, see:

• Services Australia A guide to Australian Government payments
• Department of Social Services Income Support Recipients – Monthly Time Series and Benefit and Payment Recipient Demographics - quarterly data
• AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) Older Australians: Employment and Work