PENSIONERS will receive an extra $35 a fortnight from later this month when payments are adjusted for inflation.
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The Families Minister, Jenny Macklin, will announce on Saturday that from March 20 single pensioners will receive an extra $35.80 a fortnight, while couples will receive a combined increase of $54 a fortnight.
The increase applies to people receiving the age pension, disability pension and carer payment as well as veterans' income support recipients. It will reach about 1.2 million people in NSW and 900,000 people in Victoria.
Pensions are indexed twice a year, in March and September, according to the higher of the increase in the new pensioner and beneficiary living cost index and the increase in the consumer price index.
Ms Macklin said the latest increase was driven by wages growth because the pension was also linked to male total average weekly earnings.
The latest adjustment takes the maximum pension rate to $808.40 a fortnight for singles and $1218.80 a fortnight for couples.
Also from March 20, pensioners will start receiving carbon tax compensation each fortnight. Singles will receive $13.50 a fortnight while couples will receive $20.40.
Ms Macklin said the government was delivering $1 billion a year to pensioners across the country through the carbon tax compensation package.
''In contrast, Tony Abbott and the Liberals have promised to claw back the $1 billion a year support Labor is delivering pensioners,'' she said.
''This means every single pensioner in Australia would lose more than $350 a year and every pensioner couple would lose more than $530 a year under an Abbott government.''
A spokesman for Mr Abbott said the Coalition would fund a tax cut without a carbon tax.
