Female Rest members benefit from SG threshold changes

Around a quarter of a million Rest members are receiving their full superannuation entitlements since the removal of the monthly income threshold for superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions in July 2022.

According to Rest, up to 260,000 of its members are estimated to have received super for every hour they worked as a result of removing the $450 threshold in the 2022–23 financial year.

Previously, the threshold meant workers were only entitled to SG contributions if they were over the age of 18 and earned $450 or more from an employer (before tax) per calendar month. 

Workers under 18 years of age were only entitled to SG contributions if they worked more than 30 hours in a week and earned $450 or more (before tax) per calendar month.

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Treasury’s 2020 Retirement Income Review Final Report had highlighted that 3 per cent of the workforce, primarily young, part-time, or lower income workers, were affected by this and almost two-thirds of them were women.

“The removal of the $450 income threshold has offered more than a quarter of a million examples of the power and value of reform efforts to build a fairer and more equitable super system,” said Rest chief executive, Vicki Doyle.

“This finding highlights the benefit to Rest members, but it’s likely many more working Australians are now receiving super for every hour they work as a result of the change.”

Rest found that women comprised 64 per cent of its benefiting members. 

“Women were over-represented among the 260,000 members and therefore more likely to benefit from this change. This was particularly the case for those aged between 40 and 59,” Doyle observed. 

“As a result, the change will contribute to closing the gender gap in super balances, which is around 26 per cent for Rest members aged 60–64.”

The fund’s analysis also noted that around 180,000 of the 260,000 were existing members who earnt additional contributions that they were previously unlikely to receive. Around 80,000 were new members, some of whom were unlikely to have received any contributions otherwise.

Over 11,000 inactive accounts were reactivated, allowing these members to continue to accrue investment returns on their retirement savings.

Doyle added: “Coupled with the introduction of payday super and plans to increase the visibility of unpaid superannuation, there has been some encouraging progress towards greater fairness and equity recently.

“We need to build on this momentum and implement further reforms, such as superannuation contributions on paid parental leave.”

Recently, Rest was among a dozen super funds that signed a letter to the federal government urging reform that could help end gendered inequalities in super.  

With advocacy body Women in Super and ESSSuper, AustralianSuper, Aware Super, CareSuper, Cbus Super, HESTA, Hostplus, NGS Super, Spirit Super, TelstraSuper, and UniSuper, it called for changes to the low-income superannuation tax offset (LISTO) that disproportionately affects women.

The letter also asked to increase the cap on how much LISTO is paid from $500 to $640, and extend compulsory super to the paid parental leave scheme which had gone unaddressed in the 2022–23 budget.