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Open question to the panel. This is from David. He says, 'How will these reforms benefit me
personally?’ Now I would assume that perhaps that’s … it’s not a business owner,
it’s just an employee. How are these new reforms going to affect them?
Christine Dacey: There's a couple of big wins for individuals
and in fact a lot of the reforms are most squarely targeted at individuals. First of
all you're going to be getting more Superannuation Guarantee. Second of all if you're on a low
income for whatever reason – you could be a student, you could be a stay-at-home Mum
who's got a part time job. Anyone earning below $37,000 is now entitled to a top-up
payment from the government called the Low Income Super Contribution. So that's $500
per annum depending on you know, where your income is.
So there's the SG rate rise, there's the low income super top-up payment. And the other
thing is that we're putting in place a whole bunch of reforms which make it easier for
people to track their super and to understand where it is.
20.31 So we have a tool called Super Seeker. If you go to the ATO website you'll be able
to access it. And over the space of about the next 12 to 18 months people are going
to be able to log online for the very first time and see all of their super holdings.
Now that … in one place. So it's kind of a really big step forward
in terms of being able to engage with your super. For most people they get an account
statement once a year and they kind of look at it and maybe throw it in the bin.
Michael Davison: Yeah. And there is $20 billion of lost super.
Christine Dacey: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. So on this website,
on the Super Seeker website you'll be able to see a balance – a point in time balance.
So it's not quite internet banking but it is a point in time balance for all your active
accounts and all your inactive accounts, which are all the ones that you might actually have
forgotten that you had. So that might be lost super that's sitting in a fund or it might
be unclaimed super that's sitting in at the ATO. And you can get all that money rolled
over into your current active account. Scott Pape:
One of the things I say is that, you know maybe putting the personal finance hat on
… is that it's spring. Go to the ato.gov.au/superseeker. Take you five or 10 minutes.
Christine Dacey: Have your TFN.
Scott Pape: Just put the basic details there – your
TFN, surname. Christine Dacey:
Yep. There's now another authentication process so they'll ask you some shared secret questions,
whatever. And the other thing I would say Scott is do it now but do it again because
there are more improvements coming to that tool.
So in the next 18 months there's going to be two updates to that and there'll be more
and more information that becomes available to you. And now with the press of a button
you can roll over your funds. So if you've got multiple accounts some of
which are you know, legacy accounts that you're paying fees on, that you don't need any more
and you want to roll them all over we have an electronic portability form that allows
you to move all your super into one account. Scott Pape:
Excellent. And it's not just being hit with multiple fees. You also may be paying multiple
insurance as well so it's a really smart thing for you to do.