Centrelink payments for your household, added up

The first result for most Centrelink searches is a Services Australia page with the rate tables, followed by the official estimator, which asks about one payment at a time. Independent calculators do the same: a Family Tax Benefit calculator that ignores Rent Assistance, a Child Care Subsidy estimator that ignores everything else, an Age Pension calculator that stops at the pension. None of them tells a single parent on Parenting Payment that her Family Tax Benefit is no longer income tested, or a couple that Rent Assistance moves into Part A once a child arrives.

This site was built for the household, not the payment. One set of answers feeds every engine; each engine reproduces the worked examples of the official guides (the Method 2 example of Family Assistance Guide 3.1.8.20 and the child care example of 3.5.4 are part of the automated tests), and each line of the result shows the rule that set it. That is the whole difference: the same official figures, applied together.

The calculator covers the common case. It does not model shared care percentages, the maintenance income test on child support received, the parental income test of dependent Youth Allowance, the Work Bonus for pensioners who work, Pharmaceutical Allowance, Remote Area Allowance, or the care receiver tests of Carer Payment. It also leaves out the Energy Supplement inside Family Tax Benefit, which closed to new families on 20 March 2017.

Where one of these applies, the line concerned will be too high or too low, and the guide for that payment says in which direction. Your Centrelink statement remains the reference: the share link lets you send your inputs to a financial counsellor or a social worker who can compare the two.

Pensions and allowances are fortnightly rates, so a year is 26 fortnights. Family Tax Benefit and Rent Assistance with it are annual amounts paid by the day: the daily rate is the annual rate divided by 365, and a fortnight is 14 days of it. That is why $6,139.30 a year for a child under 13 becomes $235.48 a fortnight, not one twenty-sixth of the annual figure.

Child Care Subsidy works per hour of care: the percentage applies to the lower of the hourly fee and the hourly cap, for the subsidised hours of the fortnight. The calculator shows what reaches the service after the default 5% withholding, and the gap you pay.

Pensions and allowances look at income per fortnight: wages before tax, business income, rent received, and deemed income on savings and shares for pensioners (1.75% on the first $66,800 for a single person, 3.75% above). Family Tax Benefit and Child Care Subsidy use adjusted taxable income for the financial year, which starts from taxable income and adds items such as reportable fringe benefits and reportable superannuation contributions (Family Assistance Guide 3.1.1.20).

The calculator asks for yearly income before tax for each adult and converts it. When an adult receives a payment, its taxable part is added to the family income used for Child Care Subsidy, as Centrelink does.

Most pensions and allowances are indexed on 20 March and 20 September: the rates here are those of 20 September 2026, and the next change is on 20 March 2027. Youth Allowance, Austudy and Carer Allowance move on 1 January. Family Tax Benefit amounts, the Child Care Subsidy thresholds and hourly caps, the pension income and assets free areas and the Parental Leave Pay rate move on 1 July. Each figure on this site sits in one parameter file with the guide section it comes from, so a change is made once and appears everywhere.

Pensions and allowances are paid fortnightly in arrears. Family Tax Benefit can be paid fortnightly or claimed as a lump sum after the end of the financial year, and either way it is reconciled against your actual income once your tax return is processed. Child Care Subsidy goes straight to the service, which shows it on your statement as a reduction of the fee. Parental Leave Pay is paid by Services Australia, or by an employer that has agreed to pass it on.