A reader's letter in Noel Whittaker's September newsletter says something a lot of Australians in their fifties still don't know.
Tucked into the mailbox section of the September 2026 Noel News is a short note from a reader called Sally. She had assumed, as most people do, that the age pension and a pay packet were mutually exclusive — that if her husband was still working, there was no point even asking Centrelink. She was wrong, and finding that out made a real difference to her family's budget.
It is a small letter with a big point behind it. Working and receiving a part age pension are not alternatives. Employment income does count in the income test, but it is not counted the way most people assume. Under the Work Bonus, the first $300 a fortnight of employment income is disregarded, and anything you don't use builds up in a Work Bonus balance that can grow to $11,800. New pensioners start with a $4,000 credit already in the bank. For someone doing casual or seasonal work, that can mean months of earnings barely touch the pension at all.
If you are in your fifties and planning to keep working past 67, this matters now rather than later. Winding back to three days a week, or taking a part-year contract, looks very different once you know a part pension may sit alongside the wage.
"I did not realise that my husband could claim the aged pension whilst still working. I came across an article that you had online with a calculator that gave me this information." — reader letter published in Noel News
The practical step is the unglamorous one: run your own numbers rather than assume. Noel Whittaker's age pension calculator will tell you in a few minutes whether a claim is worth lodging.
Read the full article: From the mailbox — Noel News September 2026 — Noel Whittaker, Noel News, September 2026.
If you want the whole picture — how the income and assets tests interact, what a part pension is actually worth, and how to turn super into a reliable income — Retirement Made Simple (6th Edition) walks through it in plain English. Buy direct from the author for $19.95, updated for the current financial year, and you get both PDF and EPUB.