Indexed Centrelink age pension set to rise higher in March 2025

About five million Australians will receive a boost to their incomes next month as support payments are reassessed and lifted to keep up with inflation.

The age pension, carer payments, federal rent assistance, youth allowance, JobSeeker and disability support pension will all jump higher, with the total dollar increase hanging on three measures of inflation: the consumer price index, weekly wage changes, or in the case of the age pension, the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index.

Whichever measure of inflation rises the most will become the benchmark used to determine how much incomes are boosted.

Australia’s social security payments are designed in this way to make sure income support doesn’t degrade in real value as inflation eats into purchasing power.

The indexed payments are determined twice a year, in September and March.

It is expected the final figures for 2025’s new income levels will be released in early March.

In September 2024, aged pensioners booked an increase of $28.10 a fortnight for singles and $42.40 a fortnight for couples combined.

Maximum pensions hit $1144.40 per fortnight or a single, according to calculations from Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association, for a yearly pension of some $28,000.

For a couple combined, the annual pension reached some $44,900.

Payments for single parents increased by $19.80 to $1026.30 a fortnight, while JobSeeker lifted by $15.30.

The maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance were boosted by 10 per cent, with indexation applied on top.

The budgetary measure delivered a lift of $23 a fortnight for single recipients and $27.02 for families with up to two children.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth, speaking in September, said the measures were designed to help Australian meet cost-of-living pressures.

“Indexation, together with our budget measures, means maximum rates of Commonwealth Rent Assistance will have increased by around 45 per cent since the Albanese Government was elected,” she said at the time.

“This indexation will deliver timely boosts to people receiving allowance payments and pensions, ensuring that these vulnerable cohorts have more money in their pockets for everyday expenses.”