During the 2019/20 financial year, the Commonwealth Government announced a number of measures to support Australians significantly affected by the economic volatility caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus.

The COVID-19 coronavirus support package included:

  • Temporary early access to super  for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years
  • Support for retirees  with reduced minimum drawdown requirements for account-based pensions, including our Retirement Income Pension

Temporary early access to your super

Members who were significantly financially affected by COVID-19 had temporary access to their super of up to $10,000 each financial year for both 2019/20 and 2020/21. These withdrawals from super were tax free.

Access ended as of 1 January 2021.

Support for retirees

The government also reduced the minimum drawdown requirements  for account-based pensions by 50% for the 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.

Lower and upper social security deeming rates have also been reduced to 0.25% and 2.25%, respectively.

This was extended in June 2021 to also apply in the 2021/22 financial year.

The reduction for the 2019/20, 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23 income years applies as follows:

COVID-19 measures: reduced drawdown rates for the 2019/20 - 2022/23 income years
Age Default minimum drawdown rates (%) Reduced rates by 50% (%)
Under 65 4 2
65-74 5 2.5
75-79 6 3
80-84 7 3.5
85-89 9 4.5
90-94 11 5.5
95 or more 14 7

Changing your minimum payment amounts

To change your minimum payment for an existing Retirement Income Pension account, complete our Retirement Income Pension change of details and pension payment variation form.

To apply for a new Retirement Income Pension account, use our Retirement Income Pension application form in our Retirement Income Pension Product Information Booklet

RI Term Allocated Pension members

If you have an RI Term Allocated Pension account and would like to change your minimum payment, please call us on 13 43 72.

More information

Need help

  • If you have any questions, please contact your Member Services Centre on 13 43 72 or via Live chat
  • If you need to speak to someone, Lifeline Australia has a 24-hour counselling service which you can access for free by calling 13 11 14, or visiting their website
  • You can also contact Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or visit their website, or you may be able to access other services by speaking with your General Practitioner
Page last updated 04 November 2022

Thank you for printing this page. Remember to come back to gesb.wa.gov.au for the latest information as our content is updated regularly. This information is correct as at 19 April 2024.