Superannuation News

Aussies urged to check if some of $13.8 billion in unclaimed super is theirs.

There’s close to $14 billion of unclaimed money in Australia – and some of it could be yours.

 The federal government is hoping to reunite workers with a staggering amount of lost and unclaimed superannuation in Australia.

New data released by the Australian Taxation Office shows $13.8 billion is waiting to be claimed by its rightful owners.

Super payments sometimes get “lost” when when people change their names, move jobs, change addresses or forget to update details with their super fund.

Superannuation Minister Jane Hume told Sunrise that finding out if you have any lost superannuation “is a really easy thing to do.”

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Where is the lost and unclaimed super in Australia?

ATO data shows that New South Wales tops the nation in unclaimed and lost amounts at over $3 billion, and six of the top 10 postcodes.

Victoria and Queensland have around $2 billion to be claimed, Western Australia with just over $1 billion, and South Australia with $798 million.

Residents of the ACT have $231 million in lost super, while Tasmanians are missing $135 million and the Northern Territory short $161 million.

Who can have lost or unclaimed super?​

The Australian Tax Office keeps a register of all members who have been reported by super funds as lost.

Super funds will report you as a lost member if “they have not been able to contact you, they have not received any contributions or rollover amounts for you in the last five years, or your account was transferred from another fund as a lost member account and no new address has been found,” reads the ATO website.

There are a number of types of unclaimed monies that the ATO may hold on your behalf:

• Unclaimed super money for a member 65 years old or older, or a non-member spouse, or a deceased member
• Unclaimed super money of former temporary residents
• Lost accounts with balances of less than $6000 (small lost member accounts)
• Lost accounts which have been inactive for a period of five years and have insufficient records to ever identify the owner of the account (insoluble lost member accounts)
• Accounts that are inactive low-balance accounts

Any funds owed to these members is paid from super funds to the ATO twice a year.

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