Nearly 2.5 million Australians are likely to access the early release of super before 30 June and there could be nearly as many again requesting it after the new financial year, according to a report from the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).
The ‘Experience to date with the early release of superannuation’ report found Australians under 35 had accessed the scheme in the greatest numbers, while Queensland, WA and Northern Territory residents applied by most.
The maximum of $20,000 available over two tranches per employee under early release exceeded the total maximum payments per employee for JobKeeper, which was $19,500 but only for six months.
Over 20% of the labour force and 15% of the total of individuals with a super account were expected to receive early release payments.
The report also noted that in 2017/18, women aged under 35 had a total of $53.5 billion in super while men had $69.8 billion.
Compulsory super had resulted in employees under 35 having additional savings approaching $100 billion in total, which was an average of $22,000 per person.
ASFA chief executive, Dr Martin Fahy, said: “The erosion of retirement balances through the early release scheme reinforces the need to move as soon as possible to a Superannuation Guarantee rate of 12% in order to provide adequate retirement savings for individuals, particularly women and younger Australians”.
Are you for real Kevin? Do you work for a Super Fund? If not you are niave. Compulsory Superannuation is the biggest rort on all working Australians. If u don’t understand the tax breaks to the highest income earners you should learn about that. Try understanding that although you have the impression it is your money you don’t get to decide where it goes when you die, you can’t get hold of it when you are ill and about to have your home repossessed and you wouldn’t have got this access to it if Labor was in government. What a load of crock that those accessing now will be $xx worse off in retirement. Does Bernie Dean or Greg Combet know we won’t have another pandemic or a world war? It shouldn’t be called a retirement fund when those about to retire in a couple of years are now going to get negative returns and yet still forced to donate during the negative returns. Superannuation should be voluntary, and no tax breaks. I was told today I now owe the tax dept about $45k because I was paid half of my deceased sons super and death benefit. The other half went to girl who lived in his house for about less than 2 yrs. No children bio or step, no shared bills, no shared bank accounts, not on mortgage, not claimed on tax yet Trustee of REST says she was de facto/financial dep and so pays no tax. By the Trustee taking 12 months to come to decision I paid $109k on his estate and funeral. So this girl got $210k and I got $56k. Yep, really good deal this Superannuation !! Make it voluntary, and give everyone back “their” money. 27 Industry funds, 27 CEO’s, 27 boards, the workers are the biggest employers in this country. 55,000 people work in this industry and we pay their wages from our contributions, plus donate to unions. What a rort!
Allowing those in need – especially younger members most heavily impacted by the economic effects of Covid-19 – to access up to $20k tax free of their super savings is fantastic. But as we know this will have a detrimental impact to their retirement outcomes due to reducing savings and compounding growth, and is merely kicking the can down the road. I’d love to see a conversation about enabling those withdrawals to be reinvested back into super tax free as well to help protect these vulnerable members retirement outcomes. Super is a tax incentivised savings scheme, and those earning the most are already able to benefit the most. Let’s make sure that the incentives are there for the lower income earners and financially vulnerable, as arguably they need super the most.