New figures from the Australian Taxation Office have revealed more than $29 million worth of unclaimed and lost supperannuation accounts were traced back to Wagga’s 2650 postcode.
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According to the data collected in June, a total of 6416 accounts were identified.
Riverina MP Michael McCormack said there were a myriad of ways consumers could go about claiming their missing super.
“The first step to checking if you have any lost or unclaimed superannuation is to go to ato.gov.au/checkyoursuper and follow the directions on the website,” he said
“You will have to go to the myGov website and link the ATO to your account. You can use the online services to view details of all your reported super accounts, including any that you have lost track of.”
During the 2015-16 federal budget, the ATO announced packages to streamline unclaimed and lost super administrative arrangements with the intention for individuals to find their missing accounts.
Mr McCormack said the changes were designed to include an update to the lost member register and unclaimed super money.
“The legislation included giving workers the right to choose their own superannuation fund if they were currently prevented from doing so,” he said.
It was the first time the ATO published information of unclaimed super accounts, with the amount of unclaimed accounts in the city totalling almost $4.5m.
Innovative Financial Services director Michael Tadros said some people could be sitting on a small fortune with multiple accounts in their name.
“They could be multiple accounts belonging to the one person. Most people can forget they have a superannuation account and are often unaware they can have a few accounts when starting a new job, for example,” he said.
“People could forget they have accounts because they may have changed addresses. As law, super funds are required to give their members two statements every year, which would be sent to the wrong person if contact details are not updated.”
While the number of people with multiple accounts has fallen, almost 2.3 million Australians have three or more super accounts according to the ATO.
As of June 2017, over 6.3 missing super accounts were valued at almost $18 billion.
there were over 6.3 million lost and ATO-held super accounts valued at almost $18 billion.