Where every figure comes from, and how it is checked.
NestWise works out payments, subsidies and tax from the published rules and rates. This page explains how those figures are kept in one place, how they are checked, and where our estimates stop.
In short
One catalog of rates
Every rate, threshold, income test and cap NestWise uses is kept in a single catalog, stored by financial year. That includes Child Care Subsidy (CCS), Family Tax Benefit (FTB), Parental Leave Pay, the Age Pension, Rent Assistance, income tax and the rest. Nothing is typed separately into a calculator or a screen.
The catalog is split into groups, such as the Age Pension rates or the CCS hourly caps. Each group records the official source it was checked against, for example a Services Australia page, an ATO page or one of the Department of Social Services (DSS) guides, and the date it was last checked. Each group also has a review cadence, based on how often the government changes those figures.
You can read the official sources we use on our sources page.
Automated checks
Reading a figure again is a weak check, because a wrong number can look perfectly reasonable on its own. So NestWise also makes figures check each other. The checks look for:
- Figures that should agree but do not. Where the law ties two numbers together, such as a payment rate, its taper and its published cut-off, the check confirms they still match.
- Rates nobody is watching. Every part of the catalog must belong to exactly one group with a source and a checked date, so nothing can drop out of the review cycle.
- A new year arriving. As a new financial or calendar year gets close, the check flags any part of the catalog that does not yet hold figures for it.
- Reviews that are due. Groups past their review cadence, or with no source recorded, are flagged.
The same set of checks runs every time NestWise's code changes, and again as a monthly sweep on the 1st of each month, with the results emailed to the team. Separate tests run the calculations themselves at the published limits. For example, they confirm that a couple exactly at the Age Pension's published assets cut-off is worked out at nothing, and that a couple just below it still receives a payment.
Every night, a separate check confirms that the official pages we cite, in the catalog and in our guides, can still be opened. Some government sites block automated visits, and those pages are reported as unknown rather than fine.
The same calculation everywhere
The free calculators and the NestWise dashboard use the same calculation code. For example, the free Family Tax Benefit estimator and the Family Tax Benefit page inside NestWise run the same calculation, and the free Age Pension calculator is the same calculator members use. A correction to a rule or a rate therefore reaches both at once.
Our guides work the same way. Where a guide quotes a rate, threshold or cap, the figure is filled in from the catalog when the page is shown, rather than typed into the article. Automated checks flag a guide that still quotes a figure the catalog has since moved past, and a guide that has a rate typed in by hand.
What the calculators leave out
Each free calculator covers the common situation well rather than every situation roughly. Some of the things they do not model today:
- Child Care Subsidy calculator: centre-based care only, the same daily fee and days for each child, no Additional Child Care Subsidy (ACCS) or First Nations rate, and no end-of-year balancing projection.
- Child Support estimate: one case between two parents only, the same care percentage for every child, no Relevant Dependent Child Amount (for children from a new relationship), and no multi-case assessments.
- Age Pension calculator: no reduction for time spent overseas, no Rent Assistance added for pensioners who rent, no special treatment of defined-benefit income streams, and no compensation income offsets.
Each calculator lists its own limits next to the result. Every figure is an estimate based on what you enter. Services Australia and the ATO make the final assessment, so check any figure against them before you claim, lodge or make a decision. More on this in Tools, not advice.
When something is wrong
If a figure looks wrong, we want to know. Our corrections page explains how to tell us and what happens next, and our editorial policy covers how guides are written and reviewed.