diff --git a/django_q/cluster.py b/django_q/cluster.py
index ab60f75..42f750d 100644
--- a/django_q/cluster.py
+++ b/django_q/cluster.py
@@ -371,7 +371,7 @@ def worker(task_queue, result_queue, timer, timeout=Conf.TIMEOUT):
         # We're still going
         if not result:
             db.close_old_connections()
-            timer_value = task['kwargs'].pop('timeout', timeout)
+            timer_value = task.pop('timeout', timeout)
             # signal execution
             pre_execute.send(sender="django_q", func=f, task=task)
             # execute the payload
diff --git a/django_q/tasks.py b/django_q/tasks.py
index aa8c204..ea2c9b4 100644
--- a/django_q/tasks.py
+++ b/django_q/tasks.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ def async_task(func, *args, **kwargs):
     """Queue a task for the cluster."""
     keywords = kwargs.copy()
     opt_keys = (
-    'hook', 'group', 'save', 'sync', 'cached', 'ack_failure', 'iter_count', 'iter_cached', 'chain', 'broker')
+    'hook', 'group', 'save', 'sync', 'cached', 'ack_failure', 'iter_count', 'iter_cached', 'chain', 'broker', 'timeout')
     q_options = keywords.pop('q_options', {})
     # get an id
     tag = uuid()