ATO holding over $13bn in lost super

In a statement, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy Jane Hume said around $13.8 billion in lost super was waiting to be claimed with the ATO, a significant proportion of which was registered to NSW addresses.

The state had approximately $3 billion in unclaimed super, with six of the top 10 postcodes for unclaimed amounts coming from NSW.

Victoria and Queensland had around $2 billion in lost super, while WA had just over $1 billion, South Australia had $798 million, the ACT had $231 million, the Northern Territory had $161 million and Tasmania $135 million.

“Workers may have lost or unclaimed super if they have changed their name, moved jobs or changed addresses [or] forgotten to update details with their super fund in the last few years,” Ms Hume said.

“Lost super occurs when members have lost contact with their fund or the member’s account has been inactive for a period of time. By law, the fund is required to transfer certain accounts to the ATO, which then becomes ‘unclaimed super money’.”

She added that consumers could find out if they were owed any unclaimed super by logging onto the ATO’s myGov system.

Ms Hume said as a result of the reforms, consumers were not charged fees while their unclaimed funds lay in an account with the ATO.

According to data released by the Tax Office, unclaimed super amounts had dropped by $7 billion year-on-year in the 12 months to June 2020.

Since the reforms were introduced in November 2019, almost $4.3 billion in lost super had been claimed by consumers, Ms Hume said.