The Health Card You Can Hold With No Age Pension At All
The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is means tested on income alone. There is no assets test, which is the whole point of it: a self-funded retiree whose assets rule out any Age Pension can still hold the card, and the concessions it carries are worth more than most people assume before they price a year of medicines.
- The answer: You must be Age Pension age, meet residence rules, not be receiving an income support payment, and pass an income test based on adjusted taxable income plus deemed income from account-based pensions.
- The trap: The account-based pension balance is deemed even though the pension payments themselves are tax-free after 60 and appear nowhere on your tax return. A retiree who tests only their taxable income will get the wrong answer.
- The recommendation: Work out adjusted taxable income and deemed income separately, add them, and compare the total against the current limit — which is indexed each September.
Where the AI summary above gets this wrong
"The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is for retirees who do not qualify for the Age Pension because of their assets."
That's surface-true. Here's what it misses:
- Assets are not why most people miss out — There is no assets test on this card at all. What excludes people is income, and specifically the deemed income on an account-based pension, which does not appear on a tax return.
- Receiving an income support payment disqualifies you — The card is for people not already on a Centrelink or DVA income support payment. A part-pensioner holds a Pensioner Concession Card instead, which is a different card with different concessions.
01 What the card requires
Four conditions decide eligibility, and all four must hold: you are Age Pension age, you meet the residence rules, you are not receiving an income support payment from Centrelink or the Department of Veterans' Affairs, and you pass the income test.
The third condition is the one that surprises people. The card is for those outside the income support system — someone already receiving a part Age Pension holds a Pensioner Concession Card instead, which arrives automatically and carries a broader set of concessions.
There is no assets test. A retiree with a paid-off house, a large share portfolio and $1.5 million in super can hold this card, provided their assessed income is under the limit. That is the structural difference from the Age Pension described in the means testing guide, where assets are usually the binding constraint.
Source: Services Australia — Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
02 What counts as income for the card
The assessment is adjusted taxable income plus deemed income from account-based income streams. Adjusted taxable income is broader than taxable income: it adds reportable superannuation contributions, total net investment losses, reportable fringe benefits and certain foreign income back on.
The deemed component is the part that catches self-funded retirees. Payments from an account-based pension are tax-free after 60 and appear on no tax return, so a retiree living on $70,000 a year of pension payments can have an adjusted taxable income near zero. The card does not test those payments — it tests a deemed return on the balance behind them, at the same two rates used for the Age Pension income test.
An additional amount is added to the income limit for each dependent child in your care, and the limits themselves are reviewed on 20 September each year in line with the CPI. The current figures live on the Services Australia page rather than here, because they move.
Shows: the income figure the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card is tested on: adjusted taxable income plus deemed income on your account-based pension balance. Ignores: the current income limit itself, which is indexed each September, the additional amount added for each dependent child, and the residence and income-support conditions.
Source: Services Australia — Income test for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
03 What the card is actually worth
The card's main value is cheaper prescription medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, plus bulk-billed doctor visits where the practitioner chooses to offer them and a lower threshold for the Extended Medicare Safety Net.
State and territory governments and some private providers attach further concessions to it — on energy, rates, registration and public transport — but these vary by jurisdiction and are not set by the Commonwealth, so the card's total worth genuinely differs depending on where you live.
For a household on several regular medications the medicine concession alone runs to a four-figure annual saving, which is why the card is worth claiming even by people whose income sits close to the limit. Eligibility is assessed on the income you actually have, and an income that falls in a later year is a reason to reapply rather than to assume the earlier answer still holds.
Source: Services Australia — Commonwealth Seniors Health Card
I would apply even when you think you are over the limit. The assessment uses a reference tax year, incomes fall in retirement, and the deemed component moves with the rates rather than with your balance. People assume a single refusal settles it permanently, and it does not — the version that survives contact with reality is to check again in any year your income drops.
FAQ
What benefits and concessions does the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card give me?
Cheaper prescription medicines under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, a lower Extended Medicare Safety Net threshold, and bulk billing where a practitioner offers it. State governments and some providers add concessions on energy, rates, registration and transport, and those vary by jurisdiction.
What is the income test for the CSHC?
Adjusted taxable income plus deemed income from account-based income streams, tested against a limit that is indexed every 20 September. There is no assets test, and an extra amount is added to the limit for each dependent child in your care.
Can I get the card if I already receive a part Age Pension?
No. The card is for people not receiving an income support payment from Centrelink or the Department of Veterans' Affairs. A part pensioner is issued a Pensioner Concession Card instead, which carries a broader set of concessions.
Sources
Regulator references
- Services Australia — Income test for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card · Services Australia · 2026The CSHC income test: adjusted taxable income plus deemed income from account-based pensions, and no assets test.Last verified: 2026-09-07
- Services Australia — Commonwealth Seniors Health Card · Services Australia · 2026The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card: who qualifies and what it reduces.Last verified: 2026-09-07
Calculator unit tests · the assertions this page's worked example is checked against, and their last result
Changelog
- 2026-09-07 — initial publish (new format)
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Jordan Reeves
Founder of Talk Through Wealth. A software engineer for over a decade before turning to retirement planning, Jordan built the projection engine after watching family members get fragmented, country-by-country advice that never reconciled. He writes about retirement the way the engine computes it: month-by-month, lifetime-long, and skeptical of any rule of thumb that hasn't been run through the math.