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.