Methodology
This page explains exactly where our figures come from and how we keep them right. It is the most important page on the site, because a rate that is wrong is worse than no rate at all.
Our two official sources
Every rate on BenefitRates is drawn from two official sources, both published by the Australian Government.
The first is the Department of Social Services Social Security Payment Parameters, the rates list published at each indexation. It is the structured master list of every payment rate, income-free area, taper, and asset limit.
The second is Services Australia's guide, A guide to Australian Government payments, known as the CO029 booklet. It is the human-readable guide to every payment and its income and assets tests, republished each quarter.
We use no secondary sources for the numbers. Other websites, forums, and news reports are never a source of figures for us.
Two sources, cross-checked
We do not rely on a single document. Every figure is cross-checked across both official sources. Where the rates list and the guide agree, we publish. Where they disagree, even by a cent, the build stops and a person reviews the difference against the original documents before anything goes live. A mismatch is never resolved automatically.
This is the step most sites skip, and it is why the base-rate-versus-total errors that are common elsewhere do not reach our pages.
We copy the figure, we never calculate it
Rates are published to the cent. We store and show them exactly as published. We never take last year's figure and apply an inflation rate ourselves to guess this year's, which is a common way for wrong numbers to spread. If a figure is not in an official document, it is not on this site.
Every number carries its source
Every rate cell on the site carries a source reference: the exact document, edition, and line it was taken from. For any figure, you can see which official document it came from and the date that document takes effect.
Effective dates and history
Rates change on a set date, called the indexation date, not on the day we happen to update the site. Each figure is shown with the date it takes effect. When a new rate begins, the old one does not disappear. It moves to the payment's history, so you can see what a payment was as well as what it is now.
Four indexation events each year
Australian payment rates change on four dates each year, not two. Getting this right matters, because a rate quoted from the wrong date is simply wrong.
20 March and 20 September: pensions and allowances, including the Age Pension, JobSeeker, and Rent Assistance.
1 July: family payments and many income thresholds, including Family Tax Benefit.
1 January: student payments, including Youth Allowance, Austudy, and ABSTUDY.
We aim to update the affected pages in the same week each event takes effect.
Last reconciled
Each page shows the date its figures were last checked against the official documents, its last reconciled date. If a page's date ever looks out of step with a recent indexation, that is exactly the kind of thing we want to hear about.
Corrections
If you spot an error, email support@inventum.com.au. We verify the figure against the source documents, correct it if it is wrong, and note the change. Corrections are part of how this site works, not an embarrassment.