Working Life Residence (WLR) 106-06030000

Australian Working Life Residence (WLR or AWLR) is any period from the age of 16 years to Australian Age Pension age when a person was an Australian resident as defined in the Social Security Act 1991 (that is, a legal permanent resident who is residing in Australia). It is a measure of a person's potential working life and does not mean that a person actually worked or paid taxes in Australia.

AWLR is calculated by assessing the total number of years, months and days a person has been an Australian resident:

• The number of years is multiplied by 12 to give the appropriate number of months
• Each completed month equals one month
• Any remaining days are added together. When adding days, 30 days equal one month. An extra month is then added to the final total
• See Resources for AWLR calculation information and examples.

When multiple periods of residence are assessed, each component (years, months, days) is added together first before the calculation is performed.

See Resources for an example of a multiple residence period AWLR calculation.

A datalink exists between the Department of Home Affairs and Centrelink. Once activated, the datalink will automatically populate a customer's visa details from 1 September 1994 onwards. The datalink will automatically update any change in visa for a customer who has already been identified as a mutual customer. If available, the datalink will also advise citizenship and movement information. This will help staff to:

• assess residence periods for the customer, and
• calculate the customer’s AWLR.

Generally, the minimum AWLR required for a full income and asset rate of payment is 420 months (35 years).

Customers paid using the international agreement with:

• Greece or North Macedonia may be paid according to an AWLR of 528 months (44 years)
• India or Serbia may be paid according to an AWLR of 540 months (45 years)

Customers who were either outside Australia, or inside Australia temporarily, at the implementation of the 1 July 2014 AWLR changes may continue to be saved (grandfathered) from the changes and assessed under the rules in place before 1 July 2014 including being paid according to an AWLR of 300 months (25 years). See Customers assessed under the pre 1 July 2014 Australian Working Life Residence (AWLR) rules.

AWLR affects customers who:

• are overseas for more than 26 weeks and entitled to a proportional rate of pension
• are paid under an international agreement, or
• apply for a pension from an agreement country

Customers paid under the New Zealand (NZ) Agreement or who are living in NZ long term, are paid according to Working Age Residence (WAR) rather than WLR. The following rules do not apply to these customers.

AWLR may affect the following payments:

• Age Pension
• Parenting Payment (Single) (PPS)
• Disability Support Pension (DSP)
• Carer Payment (CP)
• Pension Supplement Basic Amount

A person's portability period starts on the day they leave Australia. The day of departure is included as part of their absence regardless of the time of departure.

The day a person returns to Australia is not included as part of their absence. They are considered to be inside Australia on that day and therefore no longer affected by portability.

After a customer has been absent from Australia for 26 weeks, their rate of payment will be based on their AWLR unless they are saved under certain portability rules. For example, an autonomous DSP customer who became unable to work while an Australian resident and has indefinite portability under the no work capacity (NWC) provisions, will not be affected by proportional portability. They will be paid the normal income and asset tested rate. The payments of customers saved under the pre-20 September 2000 portability provisions may reduce after 12 months instead of 26 weeks (or not at all). See Customers overseas on 20 September 2000.

Minimum AWLR may be required before a customer is entitled to a payment under an International Agreement.

The minimum amount is generally 12 months for customers who:

• reside outside Australia and
• need to totalise to qualify for payment

While AWLR is generally rounded up, the minimum AWLR of 12 months for totalisation purposes cannot be rounded up.

Customers residing in Australia generally do not require a minimum AWLR before they can totalise. Once entitlement under an agreement is established, WLR may be used (along with the normal income and asset tests) to determine the rate of payment a customer will receive outside Australia.

Customers paid under some agreements who are temporarily or permanently in Australia may also receive the outside Australia rate.

Note: historical residence is used to determine qualification for Centrelink payments, not AWLR.

A person claiming a pension from an agreement country may use their AWLR to add to contributions or residence in the agreement country to meet the minimum contribution amount required to qualify for a pension from that country.

For example, qualification for an Austrian pension requires 15 years of contributions. If a person has 5 years of Austrian contributions, they will only require 10 years of AWLR to qualify for a part pension from Austria.

AWLR can affect the way certain types of foreign income are assessed under certain international agreements.

Known as the Randisi concession, a person paid under an international agreement has any pension from that country proportionalised based on their AWLR, before it is assessed under the income test. A proportional rate limiter ceiling applies to these customers.

Note: the following agreement countries do not apply the Randisi concession:

• Chile
• Croatia
• Czech Republic
• Estonia
• Greece
• Hungary
• India
• Latvia
• New Zealand
• North Macedonia
• Poland
• Serbia
• Slovak Republic
• Slovenia

Some countries require Australian employment periods or employment periods during AWLR to qualify for their pension. See the individual agreement country for which countries require Australian employment periods to be verified.

An Australian employment period is a period the customer actually worked in Australia as opposed to resided in Australia during their working life (AWLR). The customer needs to provide employment documentation to prove they worked in Australia.

Most proportional rates are paid according to a person's own AWLR, but the person may be paid according to their current or former partner's WLR.