Technical article

Will My State Pension or Social Security Reach Me in Australia or New Zealand?

Will both pensions arrive, and will the amounts hold up?

By Neil Solomon · 4 min read

Picture a couple named Gordon and Elaine. Gordon is American. Elaine is British. They are 66 and both draw a state pension. They are looking at a coastal town in New Zealand and one in Australia. They ask one question. Will both pensions arrive, and will the amounts hold up?

I looked for the answers on official pages. Some are clear. Some are not given.

US Social Security

The Social Security Administration booklet on payments outside the United States is dated April 2026. It lists the places where payments are barred: Cuba and North Korea, and, in general, seven countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Australia and New Zealand are not on those lists.

Two lines from the booklet matter for planning:

• "We calculate Social Security benefits in U.S. dollars."
• "We do not increase or decrease your benefits because of changes in international exchange rates."

So the amount is set in US dollars. What it buys in AUD or NZD moves with the exchange rate. Direct deposit into a bank is, in the booklet's words, "usually 1 to 3 weeks faster than check deliveries."

For US citizens and green card holders, the booklet says benefits stay subject to US income tax wherever they live, and up to 85% may be taxable. For others who are not permanent residents, "we will withhold a 30% federal income tax from 85% of your benefit amount" unless a tax treaty applies. By my arithmetic that is 25.5% of the benefit. The booklet's list of treaty countries does not include Australia or New Zealand.

There is also a Social Security agreement between the US and Australia. The agency page, certified in 2019, says people may be eligible for benefits "from one or both countries" and can apply in one country and ask that it count as a claim in the other. No New Zealand agreement page I could read was found.

UK State Pension

This is where New Zealand and Australia differ in what I could confirm.

For New Zealand, two government pages agree. One says: "(but you cannot get increases in Canada or New Zealand)". The other says the UK has a social security agreement with New Zealand, "but you cannot get a yearly increase in your UK State Pension if you live in either of those countries." The pages say there is no yearly increase. They give no rate, so I am not stating one.

For Australia, the pages I read give the general rule. Yearly increases are paid only in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, or a country whose agreement with the UK allows them. They do not name Australia. The list page I read also did not name Australia. I cannot confirm from an official page whether the Australian rate rises. The UK government could answer that in writing.

How each country taxes a pension from abroad

The Australian Taxation Office page I read was last updated 2 June 2025 and covers the 2024 to 2025 income year. The New Zealand Inland Revenue guide is dated April 2026.

One point needs care. The New Zealand guide says it does not explain obligations for an overseas social security pension and sends the reader to another guide. Yet it also lists United States social security pensions among those with "No tax in New Zealand". The other guide is not among the sources, so I show both lines and do not pick.

What is left open

• Whether the UK State Pension rises each year in Australia.
• How Australia treats US Social Security.
• The New Zealand page of the Social Security Administration (it would not load twice).
• New Zealand rules for how an overseas pension affects its own state pension.

An accountant or lawyer who works with Americans and Britons abroad could confirm how your pensions would be taxed.