What does the super industry want from tonight's Budget?

With the Federal Government announcing its Budget tonight, Super Review has collated what superannuation groups have been asking to be included.

In its pre-budget submission, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) recommended unpaid Superannuation Guarantees (SG) be included in the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG) so workers’ super payments would be protected if an employer became insolvent.

Under the FEG, the Commonwealth was required to pay an ‘advance’ on certain unpaid ‘employment entitlements’, in cases where an individual’s employment ended in circumstances connected with the insolvency or bankruptcy of their employer.

However, the types of ‘employee entitlements’ currently covered by the FEG were limited and did not include unpaid superannuation contributions.

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The association also urged the Government to introduce a $5,000 Super Baby Bonus payable into people’s super following the birth or adoption of a child and for tax impediments to superannuation fund mergers to be fixed.

Industry Super Australia (ISA) called for the Government to fix unpaid super by mandating payment of super with wages, increasing the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) compliance activities, include super in the National Employment Standards and extend the FEG to cover super in insolvency.

It also wanted the Budget to include improvements to the Your Future, Your Super (YFYS) reforms by expanding the performance test to include 10 years of historical data and all fees and products and by banning workers from being stapled to funds that fail the performance test.

Women in Super’s (WIS) 2022 Budget submission asked the Government to provide gender analysis of future budget decisions to ensure that adverse impacts on women were assessed as part of policy design.

WIS implored the Government to pay super on Paid Parental leave, apply the Low Income Super Tax Offset to wages up to $45,000, begin work on a framework for a national carers’ credit as part of the retirement system and address areas of the economy where super was not paid, such as the gig economy.

Lastly, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) called on the Federal Government to use the Budget to improve the fairness, equity, adequacy, and transparency of the retirement savings system.

AIST recommended that the Government extend the YFYS performance test to all Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated superannuation products and include their details in the ATO YourSuper tool, to assess the level of financial coercion experienced by fund members, mainly women, through the early release of superannuation scheme, and extend superannuation to paid parental leave.