What you need to know
We’ll invite you to transfer to Age Pension 13 weeks before you’re Age Pension age. You need to tell us if you:
- want to transfer or not
- have superannuation.
If you don’t do this, we may stop your Austudy once you turn Age Pension age.
We’ll send the invitation to your online account if you have one. If you don’t, we’ll post the invitation and form to you. We’ll fill in the online transfer or form with details we already know about you.
What the benefits are
If you transfer to Age Pension you'll get a Pensioner Concession Card.
You may get a higher rate of payment and more generous income and assets tests.
We exempt more land from the assets test if you have lived on a single land title for 20 years or more covering more than 2 hectares.
You won’t be affected by an income maintenance period if you get an employment termination payment.
Some of these factors may change based on your individual circumstances.
If you intend to travel, compare the rules for Austudy with those for Age Pension.
If you continue working while getting Age Pension, you’ll have access to the Work Bonus. This is an incentive for older Australians to participate in the workforce by offsetting some of your income.
What happens if you stay on Austudy
Once you reach Age Pension age, we'll automatically pay you the Pension Supplement. We’ll pay this to you with your regular fortnightly Austudy payment. The supplement replaces the following allowances:
You’ll keep any unused credit in your income bank.
You may also qualify for 2 Student Start-up Loans per year if you were getting the scholarship before 1 January 2016 and continuing in the same course.
How to confirm your decision
You need to complete the online task or return the form we send you and confirm you want to either:
- transfer to Age Pension
- stay on Austudy.
You also must tell us about any superannuation you have.
Read more about how to transfer to Age Pension.