Thursday 21 September 2017

Millions of Dollars in Lost Super Waiting for Hunter Workers

BY JESSICA ROUSE

There's millions of dollars of lost and unclaimed super just waiting for in accounts Hunter workers.

The latest figures from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) show that across the region there's $342 million lost super accounts and super being held by the ATO just waiting to be collected.

MAITLAND has the highest amount of untouched super with $19 million, followed by Wallsend with just over $17 million.

Next on the list is Charlestown where there's around $16 million, in Ashtonfield there's $15.8 million and in ADAMSTOWN there's $12 million.

The ATO considers 'lost' super to be accounts held by super funds where they've lost contact with the fund member. By law after a period of time, they're transferred to the ATO which is when they're considered to be 'unclaimed super'.

The ATO says it's easy for people to lose track of their super funds when we change jobs, move house or just haven't updated details with our super funds.