JobSeeker Savings Limit: How Much in the Bank?

General information only. This is not tax, financial or financial-counselling advice. Deeming rates, thresholds and assets limits are set by the Australian Government and change periodically — confirm current figures with Services Australia before relying on them.

“How much money can I have in the bank and still get JobSeeker?” has no single-number answer, and that is the reason the question keeps getting asked. Your savings are assessed twice, under two tests that work in completely different ways, and the number most people are looking for belongs to the test they usually hear about last.

The short answer

For a single JobSeeker recipient with no other income:

• Your payment starts to reduce at $161,107 in financial assets.
• Your payment stops entirely at $333,000 if you own your home, or $600,000 if you don’t.

The first number comes from the income test, which tapers. The second comes from the assets test, which does not — it is a cliff. Between the two, your payment falls gradually, and then one day it ends outright.

Your savings are deemed to earn income

Centrelink does not look at the interest your accounts actually pay. Financial assets are deemed: the law assumes a fixed rate of return on the balance, and that assumed amount is what the income test uses.

For a single person receiving an allowance such as JobSeeker, the rates and thresholds from 1 July 2026 are:

So $100,000 in savings is deemed to earn $835 on the first $66,800 plus 3.25% of the remaining $33,200 — $1,914 a year, or $73.62 a fortnight — no matter whether the account pays 5% or nothing at all.

If your account pays more than the deemed rate, the extra is invisible to Centrelink. If it pays less, you are assessed on the deemed figure anyway. That cuts both ways and it is why chasing a higher interest rate does not cost you payment.

Deeming thresholds are indexed on 1 July each year. The rates are not indexed at all — they move only when the Minister makes a determination, which in recent years has happened on 20 March and 20 September. Assume nothing about the next change; check the current rates when your balance is near a threshold.

What counts as a financial asset

Deeming applies to money you hold in financial form: bank, building society and credit union accounts, term deposits, shares, managed funds, bonds and debentures, and loans you have made to other people. Your home is not a financial asset. Your car and household contents are not financial assets, though they do count under the assets test below.

Superannuation is the important exception. If you are under Age Pension age, super in the accumulation phase is disregarded under both tests — not deemed, and not counted as an asset. Most JobSeeker recipients are in that position. Once you reach Age Pension age it becomes a financial asset and is deemed like everything else.

Deemed income goes through the same income test as wages

This is the part that surprises people: deemed income is not assessed separately. It joins your employment income in one pot and runs through the ordinary JobSeeker income test:

• $0–$150 a fortnight: free area. No reduction.
• $150–$256 a fortnight: 50 cents in the dollar.
• Above $256 a fortnight: 60 cents in the dollar.

Which means the free area is shared. If you are already earning $150 a fortnight from casual work, every dollar of deemed income comes straight off your payment at 50 cents.

Where the payment starts to reduce

Working backwards: the free area is $150 a fortnight, or $3,900 a year. A single person hits that when

$835 (the first $66,800 at 1.25%) + 3.25% of the balance above $66,800 = $3,900 a year

which lands at $161,107. Below that, your savings cost you nothing. Above it, every extra dollar of deemed income starts eating into the payment.

These assume no other income and no partner income. Any wages you earn stack on top and push you further along the same taper.

Couples are assessed differently — and it is not simply double

The published deeming table has three threshold columns, and JobSeeker couples use the third one, not the second:

Two JobSeeker partners therefore get $55,300 each against their own share of the financial assets, not a combined $110,600. Partner income rules apply on top of this.

The assets test is a hard cut-off

The second test looks at the same money in a completely different way — as a value, not as income — and for allowances such as JobSeeker it operates as a straight cut-off rather than a taper. From 1 July 2026:

One dollar below the limit you are eligible. One dollar above it you are not. There is no gradual reduction, which is exactly what makes this the number to know.

The assets test also counts things deeming does not: your car, your household contents and personal effects, investment properties, boats and caravans. It does not count the home you live in — that is what “homeowner” versus “non-homeowner” is doing in the table, and it is why non-homeowners get a limit $267,000 higher.

Which test actually stops your payment

Almost always, the assets test.

Sit a single homeowner exactly on the $333,000 assets limit. Their financial assets are deemed to earn $364.87 a fortnight, which reduces JobSeeker by $118.32 a fortnight — a real reduction, but nowhere near the whole payment. The maximum basic rate for a single JobSeeker recipient aged 22 or over with no children is $808.70 a fortnight.

So the picture is: the payment tapers down as the balance grows, is still paying several hundred dollars a fortnight at $333,000, and then goes to zero the moment the balance crosses that line. Deeming alone would not exhaust the payment until well over a million dollars in financial assets — long past the point the assets test has already ended it.

The practical consequence: if you are anywhere near the assets limit, that is the number to watch, and a single large deposit — an inheritance, a redundancy payment, the proceeds of a sale — can end the payment overnight rather than trimming it.

Tell Centrelink when your balance changes

Both tests run on what Centrelink believes you hold, so a balance that has moved and not been reported produces the wrong payment — and an overpayment is recovered. Report changes to your savings, shares and other financial assets through your myGov account, and check the current notification rules and timeframes on the Services Australia website, because they are set by the notice you were given rather than by a single rule that applies to everyone.

Working out your own numbers

The tables above are worked for a single person with no other income. If you have a partner, casual earnings, or a mix of shares and cash, the interaction between the two tests is where the arithmetic gets fiddly:

• Use the deeming calculator to turn a balance into the deemed income figure the income test actually uses.
• Feed that figure, plus any wages, into the JobSeeker payment calculator to see the fortnightly result.

If your question is about earned income rather than savings — how much you can work before the payment reduces — that is a different taper and it is covered in How much can you earn before JobSeeker stops?.