How to include or exclude the Government Age Pension

By default, Pathfinder includes an estimate for the government Age Pension, however, you can exclude the Age Pension from a scenario if you would like to see the projected outcome without it or if the payments are in the distant future and/or small so the case would look tidier without them.

Excluding the Age Pension may also reduce your solve time if your case is slow to solve, and it includes individuals who are over Age Pension age but are not eligible to receive any payments (if you exclude it, then it saves Pathfinder needing to calculate the payment is zero).

If the case has individuals who will not reach the Age Pension age within the analysis, then you can leave the Age Pension as the default option - Pathfinder will see they do not meet the age requirement.

To include or exclude an estimate for the Age Pension for the scenario:

1. Go to the Cash flows & Goals step (top menu), then the Retirement Planning sub-step.

2. In the Age Pension section, for the Include Age Pension estimate field, choose 'Include' or 'Exclude'

Note that if an individual is receiving an Age Pension, you should not enter it as income in the Cash flows step (under the Cash flows & Goals step on the top menu) because this will double up with Pathfinder's estimate.

If you choose to include an age pension estimate:

• An estimate for the government Age Pension will be included in the results, this estimate may be zero.

• The age pension estimate is based on the data entered in Pathfinder:

  • Age

  • Income

  • Assets, including Lifestyle assets and excluding the Family home

  • Spouse's assets (as specified in the legislation) - the spouse and their assets need to also be included in Pathfinder

Results for the Government Age Pension

See the the 'Results for Age Pension' section on the Retirement Planning and Build Super results page.

Notes on the analysis of the Government Age Pension

The age pension is indexed twice yearly in September and March. However, Pathfinder uses annual accounting so the pension amount is based on the September value.

Background adjustments and SDS options for the Age Pension

If the case includes complex analysis that you are not able to do in Pathfinder yourself, Optimo Support can apply a background adjustment or you may need to submit the case to the Optimo Financial SDS. For more details, please see Individual | Strategy-Development-Service-(SDS)-and-Background-adjustment-options

Related pages

• How to read the websolve results