HUNTER workers missed out on an estimated $146 million in superannuation payments in just 12 months, according to new industry research.
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Industry Super Australia have come up with region-by-region estimates of unpaid superannuation entitlements. The peak body’s researchers say employees in the Hunter have been short-changed $145.9 million in a year.
The national report calls for legislative action from the government, saying an increasing number of Australian workers who are eligible for the compulsory 9.5 per cent Superannuation Guarantee are not receiving the payment, amounting to a $5.9 billion gap in super entitlements over a year.
Industry Super Australia’s (ISA) estimates are based on a random and anonymous sample of two per cent of all personal tax and superannuation records returned to the Australian Taxation Office in the 2015 to 2016 financial year.
“It is based on the actual tax receipts for people, and all the superannuation they are paid,” ISA head of research Dr Nick Coates said.
“The data is very accurate but it’s not done very often, 2015 to 2016 is the most recent we have. So it shows what’s actually been paid and what should be paid, which we used to establish what the gap is nationally, and that’s been broken down into regions.”
ISA estimates that a third (33.4 per cent) of eligible employees in Australia had been underpaid super that year, a 1.4 per cent increase on estimates from the 2013 to 2014 financial year.
The report further divides its findings into state and regional estimates, which have been calculated using Census data in conjunction with the ATO files.
NSW was estimated to have the second highest proportion of underpaid workers: 34.5 per cent of workers compared to the Northern Territory’s 39 per cent.
Within NSW, the Hunter had the lowest estimate of the proportion of workers who had been underpaid super: 33.4 per cent of workers compared to the highest estimate, Norfolk Island’s 35.6 per cent.
Those who missed out on super in the Hunter were estimated to have been underpaid an average of $1,904 over the year. Dr Coates said the Hunter was in the “middle” range for the average amount lost per person.
