One in four workers missing out on superannuation payments
There are calls for the tax office to take more responsibility chasing up unpaid superannuation. It's been revealed around one in four workers missed out on a cumulative 5-billion dollars in super entitlements in 2021 and 2022. That's an average underpayment of 18-hundred dollars, per person, each year.
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00:00Well, I think it comes down to poor business practices from a lot of employees, and I think
00:08the seriousness of not paying the super isn't taken too seriously effectively. So I think
00:15a lot of employers don't really check on whether they're paying super on time, they're leaving
00:20it up to their bookkeepers or maybe someone in the office to actually do it. But also
00:24we've got to look at the tax office. The tax office is getting amazing information in terms
00:28of the single touch payroll, which is they're getting timely information on when employers
00:32are paying their employees, but also the super that's applicable as well. So we've got to
00:37look at, we've got advancements in technology, but the tax office is not really playing the
00:42part in actually trying to reduce the unpaid super as well. And I think the final one is
00:47we've got this mismatch between our pay slips and when it actually hits our superannuation
00:52fund. So a lot of employees don't need to pay super any more frequently than quarterly.
00:57So when you see your pay slip and you see that you're getting superannuation maybe on
01:01a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, it doesn't equate to it actually hitting your
01:05superannuation fund. So there is this current mismatch and the whole payday super is supposed
01:10to overcome that, which is not in place at the moment, but it's basically supposed to
01:14say that when employees pay your cash salary, they also pay your super at the same time
01:19so you can match that up to your super fund a lot easier.
01:21Yeah, so this is so important in terms of how much money people get in the end when
01:25they retire. How can those issues be overcome?
01:28Look, I think this is really important to make sure that you know that your super is
01:32your money, so you've really got to take care of it. And it does make a big difference.
01:36So $1,000 of unpaid super for a typical 35-year-old is $8,000 less than they have in retirement.
01:43If you've got $5,000 that's unpaid, it's $40,000 that you don't have in retirement. So it is
01:48a big difference in terms of your overall retirement savings. So the simplest check
01:52is at least once a year. Ideally quarterly is best, but at least once a year, look at
01:57your last pay slip, look at the superannuation that you have accrued over the year. Check
02:02with your super fund that you've received that amount of money to make sure that you're
02:06on track for your retirement.
02:07What about penalties for employers who are not doing the right thing?
02:11Yeah, look, I think the most important thing when it comes to employers and reporting it
02:15is talk to your colleagues first. So you might find that a colleague's already reported it
02:19to the tax office, which means there are hefty penalties for that employer once they
02:24go through that process. But talk to your colleagues first to see whether you're an
02:28isolated issue. Maybe it's something that you've put on a form wrong or something like
02:32that. Maybe your superannuation is sitting with your super fund, but it's not allocated
02:35to you personally. But certainly talk to your employer about it and then go through those
02:40steps to report it to the tax office. And then they can take those steps to actually
02:44recover that superannuation and get that into your superannuation fund.
02:48And you argue the ATO should be lifting its game too.
02:51Look, I think with all these advancements in terms of technology, the data points that
02:56they're receiving, they're in the ideal position to be able to identify quite quickly if there
03:01is an employer that's not actually paying superannuation. So look, I think as technology
03:06gets better and better, the onus is on the tax office to actually play a bigger part
03:10in recovering this unpaid super.