Can I keep my Australian Age Pension if I move to New Zealand?

Does the Age Pension stop when I leave?

No. Services Australia says you "may be able to get Age Pension for the whole time you're outside Australia, even if you're leaving to live in another country."

New Zealand is a special case, though. Australia and New Zealand have a Social Security Agreement, which Services Australia describes as a way "to share responsibility for social security coverage". Once you live in New Zealand, it decides how your Age Pension is worked out.

When does the change happen?

It depends on whether you are moving or visiting.

Services Australia puts it this way. Your payments may change from the date you arrive in New Zealand if you either "go there to live" or "plan to be in New Zealand for more than 12 months". Otherwise, they may change once you have been there for 26 weeks.

The Department of Social Services explains what is changing. Under the Agreement, an Australian payment is worked out one of two ways:

• the Inside Australia rate, for someone present long term in Australia
• the Outside Australia rate, for someone present long term in New Zealand.

"Present long term" means physically in the country and either there for at least 26 weeks already, or intending to stay a year or more. So moving for good puts you on the Outside Australia rate from the day you arrive. On a trip of less than a year you stay on the Inside Australia rate for 26 weeks, and move across after that.

There is one more way to trigger it early. For someone whose Age Pension was granted without the Agreement, the Department says that applying for a New Zealand payment within those first 26 weeks is taken as a sign you intend to stay. From the date you apply, you are treated as present long term in New Zealand.

This applies whether your Age Pension was granted under the Agreement or on Australia's ordinary rules. The Department says Article 14 covers both kinds of pensioner moving between the two countries.

Isn't there a 35 year rule for pensions paid overseas?

For most countries, yes, but New Zealand works differently.

Normally, after 26 weeks outside Australia, an Age Pension is cut in proportion to how long you were an Australian resident between 16 and Age Pension age. Services Australia's example is that ten years of residence gets you "10/35ths of your usual rate". The Department's guide to that rule notes that "different provisions may apply" for pensions paid under an international agreement.

For New Zealand, the Department sets out those different provisions. It lists the Age Pension as a payment within the Agreement's scope, and sets the rate for someone present long term in New Zealand under Article 13. That calculation uses 540 months, which is 45 years, rather than 35 years.

How is the Outside Australia rate worked out?

There are two formulas. Which one you are on depends on how long you have lived in New Zealand.

Both start from the same figure: the Age Pension you would get if you were living in Australia and qualified without the Agreement. Your income and assets are tested in the usual way, except that any New Zealand payment is left out.

Less than ten years of residence in New Zealand. Take your months of working age residence in New Zealand away from 540. Multiply your Australian rate by the result, then divide by 540. Any pension from a third country, meaning anywhere other than Australia or New Zealand, is then taken off in full.

More than ten years of residence in New Zealand. Multiply your Australian rate by your months of working age residence in Australia, with a minimum of 12 months, and divide by 540.

"Working age residence" means residence from age 20 up to pension age, to a maximum of 45 years. Any part month counts as a whole one.

The two formulas look at opposite countries, and that matters. Under the first, years you never spent in New Zealand take nothing off. Under the second, only your Australian years count. For example, twenty years of working age residence in Australia gives 240 over 540, a little under half the rate you would get in Australia.

The Department's guide describes the two cases as "less than" and "more than" ten years. It does not say how those years are counted, so if you are close to ten, ask Services Australia.

What does New Zealand do with it?

If you also get NZ Superannuation, New Zealand reduces it by the amount of your Australian payment.

Work and Income says so directly: "The Australian payment from Centrelink is classed as an overseas pension." The Department of Social Services describes the New Zealand side the same way. An overseas pension, including an Australian benefit, "is directly deducted" from the New Zealand payment you would otherwise get.

So, in most cases, moving changes where the money comes from rather than adding a second pension on top. There is a separate guide on how the deduction from NZ Super works, including when a partner's pension does not count.

Whether you qualify for NZ Super at all is a separate question, with its own residence test. Your Australian years may help you meet it, as the guide on counting Australian years towards NZ Super explains.

What do I actually need to do?

Tell Centrelink. Work and Income's instruction is short: "If you already get an Australian payment and move to NZ, contact Centrelink. They'll change the payment if needed."

The rest is calculated by Services Australia, not by Work and Income. Your total is made up of a New Zealand payment and an Australian one, and Centrelink works out and pays the Australian part.

What if I only recently came back to Australia?

Then there is a trap, and the Agreement is the way around it.

Services Australia warns that your Age Pension may stop if you came back to Australia to live, started getting it after you returned, and then travel within the next two years.

The Department explains how New Zealand differs. A former resident who returns and claims the Age Pension under the Agreement can take it to New Zealand within that two year period. Someone who claimed on Australia's ordinary rules "can also transfer to be paid under the Agreement" to get the same result.

What if I got my pension under an older agreement?

It may be reassessed when you move.

The current Agreement started on 1 July 2017, and earlier ones are protected by grandfathering. The Department says an Age Pension paid under the 1994 Agreement can carry on under it "unless the person leaves Australia and travels to New Zealand for more than 26 weeks or moves to New Zealand permanently". If either happens, it is reassessed under the current Agreement.

What if I later leave New Zealand for somewhere else?

A permanent move to a third country ends a pension paid under the Agreement. The Department's words are that "benefits paid under the Agreement will cease on departure to the third country".

Temporary trips to a third country are treated differently, and are not covered here.

What this guide does not tell you

It does not tell you what you will be paid. Both formulas start from a rate that depends on your income and assets. No published figure was found for what that comes to, in dollars, for someone who has moved.

It does not say what happens to the supplements and concessions that come with the Age Pension. Services Australia lists Energy Supplement, Pension Supplement and the Pensioner Concession Card as things that change when you leave to live in another country. Its section on New Zealand says only that the Agreement "can affect your payment". Services Australia also says the rules for getting Pension Supplement while travelling outside Australia change from 20 September 2026.

It leaves alone tax in either country, the choice between the Direct Payment Method and the Special Banking Option, and how the Age Pension interacts with NZ Super paid to someone living in Australia. It also leaves alone the position of a New Zealander claiming the Age Pension in Australia in the first place.

The Department explains how a pension granted under the 1994 Agreement is treated on a move, but not one granted under the 2001 Agreement. If yours dates from between July 2002 and June 2017, ask Services Australia which rules you are on.