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Going back to work after accessing your super

You’re not locked into retirement just because you’ve accessed your super. If you want or need to go back to work, you can. The good news is that you can continue receiving payments from your Retirement Income account even after returning to work.

You may have financial reasons for going back to work but there can be other benefits:

• Continuing to work can give you a sense of purpose and routine.
• Paid or unpaid work can keep you mentally and physically active.
• Work is often a big part of who we are and provides a social outlet.

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New job, new super

You’ll need to have a super account for your employer contributions. If you closed your accumulation account when you retired, you’ll need to open a new one. You won’t be able to add super contributions from your new job to your existing Retirement Income account.

Just like when you retired for the first time, there are rules on when you can access your super from your new job. Any super you accumulate from your new job might be preserved, meaning you can't access it until you meet a condition of release or turn 65.

Eventually, you can use that super to open another Retirement Income account if you want. Just keep in mind that the balances from both accounts will count towards the transfer balance cap and fees apply on each account. You also have the option of combining the two accounts, so you only pay one set of fees.

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Declaring permanent retirement and going back to work

Even if you declared permanent retirement when accessing your super you can still go back to work if you want or need to. What’s important is your intention at the time – you must have had a genuine desire to stop working when you made the declaration.

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Working and the Age Pension

While you can go back to work and still receive the Age Pension, doing so could impact your eligibility under the income and assets tests, because your super and employment income is considered.

The government’s lets you earn more money without reducing your Age Pension (or other government benefits). Essentially, you can earn up to $300 a fortnight from work, without reducing your pension.^*

^* Subject to a maximum Work Bonus balance credit of $11,800.

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