Could you be owed a share of $44 million in missing superannuation?

Federal Member for Wide Bay and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Llew O’Brien is encouraging people in Wide Bay to check their superannuation, with more than $44 million unclaimed super in Wide Bay alone.

“There is $13.8 billion unclaimed or lost super across Australia, with $44 million in Wide Bay, and that’s hard-earned money that workers are owed and may not even know they are missing,” Mr O’Brien said.

“The Protecting Your Super reforms introduced by the Morrison Government have helped reunite $7 billion with workers, but with so much unclaimed money it is well worth taking the time to check.”

“By logging into MyGov, and checking for lost super with the ATO, in a few clicks you could boost your super balance.”

Workers may have lost or unclaimed super if they have:

• Changed their name
• Moved jobs or changed addresses
• Forgotten to update details with their super fund in the last few years

Lost superannuation refers to inactive super fund accounts and ones that have lost contact with their fund member. By law, the fund is required to transfer certain accounts to the ATO, which then becomes ‘unclaimed super money’.

To check if the unclaimed super is yours, you can:
1. Login to MyGov.
2. Link the ATO portal to your MyGov account.
3. Click the ‘Manage My Super’ button in the ATO portal.

If you have lost or unclaimed super, it will be shown on the ATO portal’s superannuation page. If nothing out of the ordinary appears, your super is up-to-date.

Unlike super funds, the ATO does not charge fees, and thanks to reforms passed by the Morrison Government, proactively consolidates any unclaimed super into an eligible, active super account where possible. Those reforms have seen $7 billion already sent back to workers.

The Government’s Protecting Your Super reforms have resulted in the ATO proactively reuniting more Australians with their lost and unclaimed super. Since November 2019 almost 3.3 million accounts worth almost $4.3 billion has been proactively reunited and paid out to their rightful owners.

Further information about lost and unclaimed superannuation is available on the ATO website at https://www.ato.gov.au/About-ATO/Research-and-statistics/In-detail/Super-statistics/Super-accounts-data/Lost-and-unclaimed-super-by-postcode/