A retirement income account gives you the flexibility to set up regular income payments from your retirement savings. How much and when you get paid each year is entirely up to you.
Once you retire and move some, or all, your super into your Aware Super retirement income stream, you’ll get paid a regular income from your super. Think of it almost like the salary you received while you were working.
Key points:
While you should choose a payment amount to meet your expenses, it’s also a good idea to take into account:
The Government sets a minimum amount you need to take out each year. It’s calculated at the start of each financial year and is based on your age and your super balance at that time.
Over the past four financial years, the Government has reduced the minimum annual payment amount by 50% to assist retirees during the recent period of market volatility. This temporary arrangement ended on 30 June 2023.
From 1 July 2023 the minimum drawdown rates will return to the standard rates.
Age as start of Retirement Income (and 1 July each year) |
FY2019/20 to FY2022/23 | Standard minimum payments limit |
| Under 65 | 2% | 4% |
| 65-74 | 2.5% | 5% |
| 75-79 | 3% | 6% |
| 80-84 | 3.5% | 7% |
| 85-89 | 4.5% | 9% |
| 90-94 | 5.5% | 11% |
| 95+ | 7% | 14% |
Here’s an example of how it works
Erika is 67 years old. On 1 July 2023, her account-based pension balance was $480,000. Erika’s minimum annual payment is 5% (refer to the table above) of her account balance. Erika's required annual minimum for 2023-24 is $24,000, or a monthly payment of $2,000.
This will help you set up a yearly budget to ensure your money will last you throughout your retirement.
Your account-based pension payments are based on a frequency of weekly, fortnightly or monthly payments to your nominated bank or credit union account.
Learn more and download the pension payment schedule
You can log in to your Member Online account to change your payment frequency at any time.
You can change how much you receive for your regular payments as many times as you like throughout the year. It’s important to get your request in at least three days before the next scheduled payment, so that the change to your income payment is processed in time.
To make a change:
You can also make extra withdrawals if the regular payments that you set up don’t meet your expenses and needs.
There are some things to consider if you do this:
Join our experts as they break down super and finances into easy-to-understand topics through our live webinar education series.
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