PYS and PMIF lead super complaints

Last financial year over 2,700 superannuation account complaints were made to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), partly because of impacts felt by the Protecting Your Super (PYS) and the Putting Members’ Interests First (PMIF) legislations.

These complaints included disputes about the cancellations of insurance policies where a complainant was unaware their policy had been cancelled.

This was because of a range of reasons, as AFCA pointed out, including impacts from the PYS and PMIF legislations or there being insufficient member funds to pay premiums.

A total of 5,249 superannuation product related complaints were received by AFCA last financial year, with superannuation account complaints ranking first, followed by ‘total and permanent disability’ product complaints, which made up 978.

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But overall there was a 31% drop in the number of superannuation complaints compared to the 2019-20 financial year when AFCA received 7,556 complaints.

The most common issues experienced by those lodging complaints last financial year were delays in claim handling (856 complaints), which the AFCA said frequently related to a lack of communication from the fund.

Last financial year, 6,214 superannuation complaints were closed, including 2,403 received before 1 July 2020 and AFCA took an average of 116 days to close a complaint.