Will SCT funding be adequate to close its workload?

The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) may not have adequate resourcing to close out all the complaints currently before it to meet the deadline for its closure in 2020.

Senate Estimates has been told that the tribunal is facing a significant workload to close out existing cases before it is subsumed into the new Australian Financial Complaints Authority structure on 1 July 2020.

The chair of the SCT, Helen Davis has told a Senate Estimates committee hearing that as at March, this year, there were 1,600 open complaints in the hands of the tribunal and that it dealt with roughly 2,300 to 2,600 complaints a year.

Under questioning from ACT Labor Senator, Katy Gallagher, Davis confirmed that the SCT was reliant on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for funding, unless moneys were specifically itemised in the Federal Budget.

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“…we do not negotiate our Budget,” Davis said. “ASIC has the obligation to provide the resourcing. Practically how that works is that we have discussions. Indicatively for next year ASIC has advised a budget of $5.1 million.”

The SCT chair said that in context of closing out all complaints before the 2020 deadline, the tribunal was undertaking work to model what resourcing would be required.