Australians have more than $16 billion worth of lost superannuation that’s collecting dust in the coffers of funds and the Australian Taxation Office.
Tax office figures published on Monday reveal more than $2.1 billion in retirement savings have been added to the mammoth pile of unclaimed super across Australia in the past financial year.
There’s now enough lost super to fund a comfortable retirement for almost 30,000 Australians.
ATO deputy commissioner Emma Rosenzweig urged workers to reclaim the funds.
“Super is one of the most important investments many Australians will have during their lifetime, which is why we want to reunite hard-working Australians with what is rightfully theirs,” she said on Monday.
“When it comes to protecting your financial future, every bit counts.”
Superannuation can become “lost” or “unclaimed” in a few ways – some of the most common are when people change jobs, move house or just forget to update their contact information.
About 23 per cent of Australian workers also have multiple super accounts, which can make it easier to forget about or lose superannuation, the ATO said.
About $10.4 billion of the lost super pile is being held by super funds, while $5.6 billion is being held by the ATO because the balances on those accounts are $6000 or less.
“There are large sums of money waiting for people to claim,” Ms Rosenzweig said.
Reclaiming lost superannuation
The good news is it’s relatively easy to find unclaimed super or staple nest eggs together.
There are three ways to reclaim lost super – online, over the phone, or through a written letter.
The online option is fastest and should only take a few minutes. You’ll need to log into MyGov, click on ‘manage my super’, and update any personal and financial information listed there.
The ATO has records of who each account belongs to, so they should be able to match you with your lost retirement savings relatively easily once you’ve updated those details.
“While we’re doing all we can to get this money back where it belongs, we rely on people keeping their contact information up to date,” Ms Rosenzweig said.
“The best thing you can do to ensure you’re getting what you’re entitled to is checking that your current contact information and bank account details are correct.”
Even if you’re confident you have no unclaimed super, it’s worth checking because if you have multiple super accounts it could be costing you.
“While we know that some people intentionally maintain a number of accounts, some are unaware that this is the case,” Ms Rosenzweig said.
“If you’ve unknowingly got multiple accounts, you could possibly be losing hundreds of dollars a year to fees.”
Under legislation passed in 2019 the ATO can staple these accounts into one nominated fund on the MyGov website.
About 4.7 million accounts worth $7.1 billion have been consolidated over the past three years.
