Research from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has found Australians believe more money should be saved for their retirement, not less.
The research, conducted by CT Group (on behalf of ASFA), examined community attitudes to superannuation, the industry, compulsory superannuation and the scheduled increase of the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) to 12%.
ASFA chief executive, Martin Fahy, said: “The views of the community were unequivocal. Australians value superannuation and consider that it is crucial to ensure they have dignity in retirement”.
The research concluded with an overwhelming majority of respondents (81%) agreeing with the statement “people need to save more superannuation, not less” while three quarters agreed with the statement that “postponing the super guarantee increases may mean that many people will have to work for longer in order to retire”.
A majority of Australians (58%) agreed that giving people early access to their super would undermine the fairness of the system.
And when a full list of national issues was prompted to respondents, government intervention in the superannuation industry was considered one of the least important priorities. Just 2% of Australians said that they would rank further regulation of the industry as a top priority.
Fahy said: “It is clear that the average Australian believes more money should be saved for retirement and not less. However, many Australians are concerned that while they personally may have saved enough to live well in retirement, others who don’t save might become a burden on taxpayers.
“In this context, there is overwhelming support for maintaining the legislated increase of the SG to 12 per cent and for the compulsory nature of the system.”
The report was based on six focus groups of Australians aged 25-69 conducted in electorates across the country in October 2021, as well as a survey of 2,043 Australians in November 2021.
