Working Life Residence (WLR) 106-06030000

Australian WLR refers to any period from the age of 16 years to Age Pension age when a person was an Australian resident as defined in the Social Security Act 1991. It is a measure of a person's potential working life and does not mean that a person has to have actually worked or paid taxes.

Calculate WLR 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
• 30 days equal one month, and any remaining days are rounded up to a month, then an extra month is added to the final total. See Resources for an example calculation

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

The Immigration Datalink with the Department of Home Affairs will automatically populate a customer's visa details from 1 September 1994 onwards. The datalink will automatically update any change in visa for any customer who has already been identified as a mutual customer. If available, the datalink will also advise citizenship and movement information. This will allow staff to assess residence periods for the customer and help in calculating the customers WLR.

Generally, the minimum WLR 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 a WLR of 528 months (44 years). Customers paid using the agreement with India or Serbia may be paid according to a WLR of 540 months (45 years). For more information, see:

• Greece Agreement and foreign pension information
• North Macedonia Agreement and foreign pension information
• India Agreement and foreign pension information
• Serbia Agreement and foreign pension information

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 a WLR of 300 months (25 years). Customers assessed under the pre 1 July 2014 Australian Working Life Residence (AWLR) rules has more information.

WLR affects customers:

• who are overseas for more than 26 weeks and entitled to a proportional rate of pension
• who are paid under an International Agreement, and
• who 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 either of these customers.

WLR 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 payment will be based on their Australian WLR unless they are saved under certain portability rules. For example, an autonomous DSP customer who became unable to work while an Australian resident, will not be affected by proportional portability. They will be paid the normal income and asset tested rate.

A minimum WLR may be required before a customer is entitled to payment under an International Agreement.

The minimum amount is generally 12 months for customers who are residing outside Australia and who need to totalise to qualify for payment. While WLR is generally rounded up, the minimum working life residence of 12 months for totalisation purposes cannot be rounded up.

Customers residing in Australia generally do not require a minimum WLR 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 WLR.

WLR can also affect the way certain types of income are treated. For example, if a person is paid under an international agreement (other than Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, India, Latvia, North Macedonia, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia), any pension from that country is proportionalised before being added into the calculation. A proportional rate limiter ceiling applies to these customers.

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

For example, to qualify for an Austrian pension a person requires 15 years of contributions. They may add 5 years of contributions to 10 years of WLR and qualify for a part pension from Austria.

Some countries require employment periods during AWLR to qualify for the foreign pension, see the individual agreement country for which countries require employment periods.

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