{"id":5232,"date":"2026-02-20T01:13:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/?p=5232"},"modified":"2026-02-20T01:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T01:30:23","slug":"20-march-2026-is-pension-indexation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villages.com.au\/retirement\/20-march-2026-is-pension-indexation-day\/","title":{"rendered":"20 March 2026 is pension indexation day"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"5232\" class=\"elementor elementor-5232\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-8089faa elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"8089faa\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-477bedc\" data-id=\"477bedc\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-01fdfb2 elementor-drop-cap-yes elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"01fdfb2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{&quot;drop_cap&quot;:&quot;yes&quot;}\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>R<strong>ising inflation is certain to see an increase in the Aged Pension on the above date.<\/strong><\/p><p>The current fortnightly pension for singles is $1,079.70 and couples combined $1,627.80. The pension rate changes on 20 March and 20 September annually.<\/p><p>Based on published CPI figures, the general consensus is the full rate pension will increase by approximately $22.20 per fortnight for a single pensioner and $33.40 per fortnight for a couple combined on 20 March 2026.<\/p><p>However, under the income test, deeming rates will be adjusted, and this may affect your pension.\u00a0<\/p><p>Deeming is a set of rules used to determine the income your financial assets create. It assumes these assets earn a set rate of income, no matter what they really earn.<\/p><p>With the government deciding to update the deeming rates, it will affect someone\u2019s pension payment if you have:<\/p><ul><li>savings accounts and term deposits;<\/li><li>managed investments, loans and debentures;<\/li><li>listed shares and securities;<\/li><li>some income streams; and<\/li><li>some gifts you make.<\/li><\/ul><p>The higher deeming rates increase, the less that your pension will increase. Beyond a certain point, your pension payment could in fact reduce.<\/p><p>For example, a single homeowning pensioner with $300,000 of assets outside the principal place of residence would experience an increase in their pension of approximately $11 per fortnight if deeming rates were increased by 0.25% \u2013 compared to a $22 per fortnight increase if deeming rates aren\u2019t lifted. If deeming rates increased by 0.5%, they would receive a small decrease in the pension of $1 per fortnight.<\/p><p>A homeowning couple with $500,000 of assets outside the family home would receive an increase of $16 per fortnight if deeming rates increased by 0.5%, compared to $33 per fortnight with no deeming rate increase. They would receive a decrease of $2 per fortnight if deeming rates increased by 0.5%.<\/p><p>Centrelink will provide you with the actual impact when they recalculate pensions on 20 March.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-07d2121 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"07d2121\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-90efad6\" data-id=\"90efad6\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-4f54bb7 elementor-button-success elementor-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-button\" data-id=\"4f54bb7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"button.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-button-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"elementor-button elementor-button-link elementor-size-lg\" href=\"https:\/\/thedcmgroup.createsend1.com\/t\/y-e-atyoz-l-w\/\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-content-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-button-text\">Return to Newsletter<\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rising inflation is certain to see an increase in the Aged Pension on the above date. The current fortnightly pension for singles is $1,079.70 and couples combined $1,627.80. The pension rate changes on 20 March and 20 September annually. Based on published CPI figures, the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retirement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5232"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5240,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5232\/revisions\/5240"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.villages.com.au/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}