SCT no place for distress or damages

The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) has reaffirmed that it does not have the power to award damages or compensation for distress.

The SCT made the determination (D16-17\142) after a superannuation fund was ordered by the tribunal to pay $200,000 to a deceased member’s wife who then returned to the tribunal seeking nearly $79,000 in damages for ongoing distress.

In rejecting the claim, the tribunal noted that the superannuation fund had complied with the SCT’s earlier determination and had paid the complainant $200,000 and noted that “the trustee was required to do no more than comply with the determination made by the tribunal”.

The determination then went on to note: “The tribunal is not a court and it derives its power from the Complaints Act. There are no express provisions under the Complaints Act that empower the tribunal to award compensation for distress or personal damages, nor does the tribunal have power to direct a trustee or other decision-maker who has been joined as a party to a complaint, to pay a complainant’s costs, out of pocket expenses or interest”.

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The SCT determination reinforced that, under the Complaints Act, it could only exercise its power to place the complainant as nearly as practicable to the position they would have been in but for the unfairness or unreasonableness they suffered.

It said that if the complainant had been unhappy with its determination directing the superannuation fund to pay her $200,000 she should have exercised her right of appeal to the Federal Court.