Can You Get a Home Loan on a Disability Pension?

Yes, you can get a home loan on a disability pension when the lender accepts the Disability Support Pension (DSP) as ongoing income that covers the repayments. A part-time wage or a partner’s income can make up a shortfall. Lenders assess DSP under their ordinary income rules, so the questions are which payment the borrower receives and how each lender classifies it.

The lender’s classification decides more than the payment amount. Pepper Money counts Centrelink pensions at 100%, while Macquarie counts disability benefits only as supporting income and only when the payment isn’t subject to medical review.

Identify the Benefit

Start by confirming that the payment is DSP and not another Centrelink or insurance payment, because lenders treat each one differently. Services Australia pays DSP to a person whose physical, intellectual or psychiatric condition is likely to last more than 2 years and stops them working.

The term “disability pension” also covers payments that lenders assess under other rules.

Payment	Who receives it	Why it matters to the lender
Disability Support Pension	The person with the condition	Long-term income support, assessed under each lender’s Centrelink or disability benefit rule
JobSeeker Payment	A person who is sick or injured and can’t work for a short time	A short-term payment, so it doesn’t show the continuity a long-term pension shows
Carer Payment and Carer Allowance	The person providing daily care, not the person with disability	Belongs to the carer’s income, under a separate lender rule
Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) Disability Compensation Payment	A veteran with a service-caused injury or disease	A non-taxable DVA pension, closed to new applications from 1 July 2026
Income protection or salary continuance	A person insured under a private policy	Paid by an insurer, so the insurer’s letter supplies the continuity evidence

The DVA payment continues for veterans who already receive it, according to the DVA eligibility page last updated 1 July 2026. Compensation after a workplace injury follows its own lender rules, which the workers compensation home loan guide covers.

Age Pension and other retirement pensions sit with older borrowers, loan terms and exit plans, which the pension home loan guide explains.

Confirm the Payment Details

Confirm five facts from the borrower’s current Centrelink records before you match the payment to a lender. The borrower can download an income statement, Centrelink payment details or a Centrelink statement as a PDF through the Request a document service in their Centrelink online account.

1. The payment name must read Disability Support Pension, not another payment.
2. The recipient must be the borrower, because a carer’s payment belongs to the carer.
3. The rate is the fortnightly amount actually paid, which can sit below the maximum.
4. The review status shows whether a medical or non-medical review is under way.
5. The expected duration comes from the payment type and the borrower’s age.

From 20 September 2026, the maximum DSP is $1,237.70 a fortnight for a single person aged 21 or over and $933.00 a fortnight each for a couple. These totals include the Pension Supplement and Energy Supplement, according to Services Australia’s payment rates page. Rates change on 20 March and 20 September, so use the amount on a statement issued after the latest change.

A partner’s income and assets can lower the rate, and people under 21 without children get different rates. Use the amount on the statement in servicing, never the maximum.

Lender Treatment

Lenders that publish a disability or Centrelink pension rule differ on whether the payment can be the main income and how they test that it will continue. Read each lender’s rule on three points before shortlisting it.

• Some lenders accept DSP as the main income, while others count it only as supporting income.
• A lender may treat the payment as permanent only when it’s free of medical review.
• The payment may need to continue for the loan term or to a set age.

What Lenders Publish

Pepper Money’s broker product guide accepts Centrelink pensions, including invalid pensions, at 100% of the amount received, as at October 2026. The same guide caps the loan-to-value ratio (LVR) at 75% when applicants draw most of their income from Centrelink and social benefits. It also requires servicing of at least 1.25 times in that case.

Macquarie’s 10 September 2026 credit guidelines count disability benefits at 100% only as supporting or secondary income, defined as “not the predominant income required for servicing”. The payment provider must confirm that the payment is ongoing and not subject to medical review. It must also be payable for the loan term or until retirement age, which Macquarie assumes is 70.

Macquarie treats these payments as taxable income in servicing. DSP is tax-free for recipients under Age Pension age, according to Services Australia’s taxable payments list, so Macquarie’s servicing figure can sit below the amount the borrower receives.

Westpac’s minimum required documents checklist asks for a government letter or Centrelink statement for eligible benefits, as at October 2026. It points to Westpac’s credit policy for the full list of eligible benefits. Bluestone’s online credit policy, last updated 10 November 2025, lists social security among other income and refers brokers to a business development manager (BDM).

Permanent or Reviewable

A lender treats DSP as permanent when the evidence meets its continuity test, such as Macquarie’s loan-term or age-70 test. Services Australia may review whether a recipient still meets the medical and non-medical rules. It can stop the payment when a recipient no longer meets them.

That review power decides the Macquarie case. If the borrower can’t produce evidence that the payment isn’t subject to medical review, the DSP doesn’t meet Macquarie’s rule, even as supporting income.

Pepper Money’s published rule sets no medical-review test for Centrelink pensions. Compare each lender’s rule before you treat a reviewable payment as acceptable.

Age Conditions

Age changes both the payment and the lender’s continuity test. Some DSP recipients under 35 must meet participation requirements, so ask whether those requirements apply and are being met.

At Age Pension age, DSP continues only if the recipient chooses to stay on it. Services Australia invites recipients to transfer to Age Pension 13 weeks beforehand, and Age Pension has no medical reviews. A borrower who doesn’t answer that invitation can have DSP stopped at Age Pension age.

A loan term that runs past a lender’s retirement age also needs an exit plan, which the pension home loan guide explains.

Comparing Policies Across Lenders

A lender’s published policy can list social security without a DSP rule, as Bluestone’s online credit policy shows. Bulma’s Policy Advisor checks a Centrelink income question against 52+ lenders’ policies and quotes the policy wording behind each answer. Its comparisons name the lenders whose policy doesn’t cover the point, which shows where a BDM conversation is needed.

Evidence and Scenario

Collect the evidence for every income source before you test the scenario, because each source changes which lenders fit. Match each document to the fact it proves.

Income source	Evidence	What it proves
DSP	Centrelink income statement or Centrelink statement, issued after the latest rate change	Payment name, recipient and current fortnightly rate
DSP	Written evidence from Services Australia of review status, where the lender requires it	Whether the payment is subject to medical review
DSP	Bank statements showing the Centrelink deposits	The payment reaches the borrower’s account at the stated rate
Part-time wage	Payslips and the employer’s details	The wage and the hours worked
Co-borrower’s wage	Payslips and the latest tax return	The income of a partner or relative who joins the application
Other benefits	Centrelink statement for each payment	Which payments the lender may also count

A DSP recipient can work up to 29 hours a week without losing the payment, as long as they meet the income test. The recipient must report income every fortnight, so a new job can change the DSP rate on the next statement.

DSP below Age Pension age isn’t taxable, so it doesn’t appear on a Centrelink payment summary. The income statement, not the tax return, becomes the main record of the payment.

Worked Example: Adding a Co-Borrower’s Income

This example is fictional. Alex is 42, single and wants to buy a $500,000 home with a $50,000 deposit, which is a 90% LVR. Alex’s sibling, Jordan, can join the loan.

Alex’s income statement shows DSP of $1,100 a fortnight, which is $28,600 a year. That rate already reflects Alex’s own wage of $400 a fortnight from a part-time job, which is $10,400 a year. Jordan isn’t Alex’s partner, so Jordan’s wage doesn’t lower Alex’s DSP.

Applicants	Total income	DSP share	Pepper Money	Macquarie
Alex alone	$39,000	73%	Most income is Centrelink, so the 75% LVR cap applies and the 90% LVR loan doesn’t fit	DSP is the predominant income for servicing, so it can’t count as supporting income
Alex and Jordan	$107,000	27%	Most income isn’t Centrelink, so the 75% LVR cap no longer applies	Jordan’s wage carries most of the repayments, so DSP can count as supporting income if Services Australia’s evidence shows no medical review

Alone, Alex needs a $125,000 deposit to reach Pepper Money’s 75% LVR. That’s $75,000 more than Alex holds, before purchase costs.

When Jordan joins with a $68,000 wage, Pepper Money’s cap no longer applies and the DSP can become supporting income under Macquarie’s rule. The combined income then goes through each lender’s servicing test, which the loan serviceability guide explains.

When Another Income Changes the Result

Additional income widens the lender choice once DSP is no longer the applicants’ main income. Pepper Money’s LVR cap stops applying when Centrelink and social benefits fall below half of the applicants’ total income. Macquarie’s test turns on servicing instead, so DSP can count as supporting income once other income carries most of the repayments.

The additional income must also be acceptable in its own right. A part-time wage needs the lender’s employment rules, and a co-borrower who joins the application takes on the debt too. When that co-borrower is a partner, their income can also lower the DSP rate, so use the statement issued after any change.

A partner or relative who won’t share the loan can’t fill the gap this way. A guarantor is a different route, which the home loan guarantor guide covers.

Explain the Outcome

Receiving DSP doesn’t guarantee approval. It makes the borrower eligible for assessment at lenders that accept it, and the outcome then depends on facts the payment alone doesn’t settle.

Tell the borrower which fact or lender check could change the result.

1. The DSP share of total income decides whether a lender’s majority-income cap applies.
2. Review status decides whether a lender that requires a permanent payment counts the DSP at all.
3. The deposit and LVR decide whether a capped lender can still take the loan.
4. Servicing at the lender’s assessment rate decides the loan amount, after commitments and living expenses.
5. Credit history and existing debts still apply as they would for any borrower.

If one of these facts is missing, name it and the document that would settle it. If a lender’s published policy doesn’t address DSP, confirm its treatment with the BDM before you present that lender as an option.