Next month, about five million Australians will see a boost in their incomes, with increases to payments like the Age Pension, Carer Payments, Youth Allowance, JobSeeker, Disability Support Pension, and Federal Rent Assistance.
The amount of the increase will depend on three measures of inflation: the Consumer Price Index, weekly wage changes, or, for the Age Pension, the Pensioner and Beneficiary Living Cost Index. The measure that rises the most will be used to determine how much payments will go up.
This system ensures that income support keeps pace with inflation, so people receiving payments don’t lose purchasing power over time. These payments are adjusted twice a year, in March and September, and the updated income figures for 2025 will be announced in early March.
In September 2024, the Age Pension saw increases of $28.10 per fortnight for single pensioners and $42.40 per fortnight for couples combined. As a result, the maximum pension for a single person reached $1,144.40 per fortnight, or around $28,000 annually, and for a couple, it reached about $44,900 per year.