Try it with your numbers: Work Bonus calculator: how much can I earn and keep my full Age Pension?

What the income bank is

Every fortnight you’re on the Age Pension, Services Australia adds $300 to your Work Bonus balance, often called the income bank. When you have work income, the balance is used to offset it before the income test. Whatever you don’t use stays in the bank, up to a maximum of $11,800. The balance carries over between financial years and doesn’t expire.

If you claimed the Age Pension for the first time from 1 July 2024, you started with a balance of $4,000. You can check your balance in your Centrelink online account through myGov (Payments and claims, then My payments).

Why it suits casual and seasonal work

Say you don’t usually work, so your balance sits at the $11,800 maximum. Then you pick up Christmas casual work and earn $3,000 in one fortnight. Services Australia adds that fortnight’s $300 ($12,100 available) and offsets the whole $3,000, so none of it is assessed and your pension doesn’t change. Your balance drops to $9,100 and then rebuilds by $300 for each fortnight you don’t work, getting back to $11,800 after 9 fortnights.

That makes the bank a good fit for exam supervision, election work, harvest work, relief teaching or locum shifts: short bursts of higher earnings with quiet periods in between.

The catch with steady work

The order matters. Services Australia applies your balance to your work income before the income test, so if you earn more than $300 every fortnight, the balance runs down even when the $226 income threshold would have covered the extra.

Example: a single pensioner with no other income earns $826 every fortnight and has a $3,000 balance. Each fortnight the balance absorbs everything above $300, so it falls by $526 a fortnight and is gone by the sixth fortnight. From the seventh fortnight, $526 of wages is assessed each fortnight, which is $300 over the income threshold, and the pension falls by $150 to $1,087.70 a fortnight. The balance didn’t lift how much they can earn in the long run; it only delayed the reduction for about three months.

So for regular part-time work, the number that matters is the ongoing limit: $526 a fortnight for a single person with no other income. The bank is a buffer for the busy weeks.

Couples have separate banks

Each partner has their own balance and it can only offset their own earnings. If one partner works and the other doesn’t, the non-working partner’s bank keeps building but can’t help. See couples working on the Age Pension.

If you go off the pension

If you stop getting the pension, your balance is kept and reactivated if you come back. No balance builds up or gets used in a fortnight where you aren’t paid any pension.

Quick answers

What is the maximum Work Bonus balance?

$11,800. It builds up by $300 for each fortnight you are on the pension and don’t use the full $300 against work income.

Does my Work Bonus balance expire?

No. It carries across financial years and stays until it is used. If you go off the pension, it is kept and reactivated if you come back on.

Can I use my partner’s Work Bonus balance?

No. Each person’s balance can only offset their own work income.

Sources

Figures checked on 27 October 2026. Age Pension rates and thresholds are indexed during the year, so check current figures.

General advice warning. This article is general information only and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. Examples are illustrations, not predictions or guarantees, and Services Australia decides your actual entitlement. Rules and thresholds change; check the sources above. Consider our Financial Services Guide and seek personal advice before acting. FinForce is a Corporate Authorised Representative (No. 001241242) of Financial Force Pty Ltd, ABN 42 091 425 464, AFSL 238337.

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