When You Can Access Your Super

Preservation age by date of birth

If you were born after 30 June 1964 your preservation age is 60 — and it stays there. Preservation age is only 55 for people born before 1 July 1960, which is why so much published material contradicts itself.

Source: Australian Taxation Office — Conditions of release and preservation age, read in full 13 October 2026. General information only, not personal financial advice.

The conditions of release

Preserved benefits can only be cashed voluntarily if a condition of release is met. The most common ones, in the ATO's words, are when the member:

• has reached their preservation age and retires;
• has reached their preservation age and begins a transition to retirement income stream;
• ceases an employment arrangement on or after reaching 60;
• is 65 years old, even if they have not retired; or
• has died.

Under 60, the retirement condition is stricter than people expect. You have to have reached preservation age, ceased gainful employment, and have no intention of becoming gainfully employed in the future — all three. From 60 it loosens: ceasing a job is enough.

Three kinds of benefit, three sets of rules

Most people's balance is almost entirely preserved, which is the column that needs a condition of release.

Tax on super benefits

• 60 or over: payments from a taxed source are generally tax free. If your only income is super benefits from a taxed source you will not need to lodge a tax return — but you will if you have other income or tax was withheld from a super income stream.
• Under 60: the taxed element of a lump sum is generally taxed at between 17% and 22%.
• Income streams before preservation age: the super income stream tax offset is not available for the taxed element, with narrow exceptions.
• Untaxed elements — for example some public sector funds — are taxed differently again, and the rate depends on whether you take a lump sum or an income stream.

Whether your fund is a taxed or untaxed source matters as much as your age. Most funds people are in are taxed sources.

Transition to retirement: working and drawing at the same time

Once you reach preservation age you may be able to start a transition to retirement income stream (TRIS) while you keep working. A TRIS must be account-based, cannot be commuted unless you have met a condition of release with no cashing restrictions, and while you are under 65 restricts you to between 4% and 10% of the balance each year.

Once you retire after preservation age, or turn 65, the ceiling disappears and the TRIS becomes an ordinary account-based pension.

Read the drawdown side on its own page: super minimum drawdown calculator.

Leaving a job: the 60-plus rule in practice

If you are 60 or over and cease one employment arrangement, you can cash all benefits accumulated up to that time — even if you keep working somewhere else. But amounts that accrue after that date are preserved or restricted non-preserved benefits again, and cannot be cashed until a fresh condition of release is met. People who change jobs at 61 expecting permanent access to everything are surprised by this.