Future prosperity starts here

AUSTRALIANS are living longer and can expect to have to support themselves to a greater age in retirement as the generations go on so, even though it might feel like a problem for later in life, it is imperative people get their super right now.

The super industry regularly calls for a greater rate of employer contributions than the current 9.5 per cent. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has called for the super guarantee (SG), as it is known, to be increased to 12 per cent as soon as possible and in the lead-up to the 2017 Budget, ASFA is calling for stability in super policy settings, as well as “modest but affordable enhancements”, according to ASFA chief executive Dr Martin Fahy. These include:

enabling the ATO to reunite lost super accounts to a member’s active account;

providing $10 million annually to the tax office to audit SG payment compliance by employers;

including unpaid SG entitlements in the definition of unpaid employee entitlements for the purposes of the Fair Entitlements Guarantee;

providing permanent capital gains tax relief for mergers of super funds; and,

providing adequate resourcing for the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) and a one-off payment to enable it to deal with a backlog of complaints.

“ASFA is calling for a period of consolidation for the super industry to enable the various changes made in the last budget to be accommodated,” Dr Fahy said.

“We have a retirement income system ranked as third best in the world, but if government strengthens its commitment to super and reflects public affection for the scheme, then Australians can still have the best future in the world for its retirees.”