Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth will not lift deeming rates for 900,000 welfare recipients in this month’s federal budget, in a move that could cost the budget billions annually but will avoid slashing payments to pensioners just after the federal election.

Deeming rates are used to estimate the amount of income people earn on financial assets. They feed into means testing for social security payments, including the Centrelink age pension, JobSeeker and parenting payments.