ATO reports $20.8bn in lost super across Australia

ATO assistant commissioner Graham Whyte said that last year over 540,000 active, lost and unclaimed super accounts worth more than $4.4 billion were consolidated using ATO online via myGov.

“Often people lose touch with their fund by simply changing jobs or moving home. It’s important to know that this doesn’t mean it’s lost forever, getting back in touch is easier than you think,” Mr Whyte said.

New legislation means that for the first time, the ATO can now start reuniting Australians with their super without them needing to take any action.

The new law also requires super funds to report and pay ‘inactive low balance accounts’ to the ATO. This includes accounts that have not received a contribution for 16 months and have a balance below $6,000.

“In total, we’ve received over 2.3 million inactive low balance accounts from super funds, valued at approximately $2.16 billion,” Mr Whyte said.

“We are now working to reunite Australians with these amounts by either transferring it into an active super account, or directly into their bank account where the amount is less than $200 or the member is aged over 65 years.”

So far, the ATO has reunited just over 841,000 accounts worth nearly $1.38 billion. This includes approximately 684,000 accounts worth $1.22 billion that have been transferred into an individual’s active super account and approximately 157,000 accounts worth $161 million directly to individuals’ bank accounts.

“We will be continuing this work throughout November and into the future. We will let you know after we have reunited you with your super,” said Mr Whyte.

“We expect more than 1 million people will receive a direct payment.

“With the ATO now able to reunite these inactive low balance accounts and previously unclaimed accounts, we’ve already started to see some incredible examples of people receiving meaningful boosts to their retirement savings.”

He advised that anyone who thinks they may get a direct payment should make sure their bank account details are up to date by logging in to ATO online via myGov.

Looking at each individual state, the ATO found that residents in NSW were missing out on $6 billion in superannuation, followed by Victoria ($4.8 billion), Western Australia ($2.3 billion), Queensland ($2.8 billion), South Australia ($1.4 billion) and Tasmania ($404 million).