The government’s Stronger Super draft superannuation data and payment standards are key to getting all super stakeholders speaking the same language, the head of the retirement savings industry body said.
Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia chief executive Pauline Vamos said the draft laws aimed to remedy the paper-based system’s lack of uniform standards across the industry.
She said a single form would smooth the way for electronic super access.
“One of the issues that some consumers and employers have had with superannuation and superannuation systems is different forms with different funds – different information,” Vamos said.
Treasury said the draft explanatory memorandum was in line with government’s commitment to improve super account administration and management through the SuperStream reforms.
“What these standards do is start the process and take it a long way in terms of getting that uniform standard of information,” Vamos said.
“This will happen for contributions, so employers will have the same form. If they’ve got 25 different funds that they deal with, it’s the same form, same information. If I’m a member and I’m rolling over accounts from different funds, I can use the same form. That’s what this will do, so it’s very important.
“Once you have the same form, you can make it electronic. It means you’ll have straight-through processing. It’s all about efficiency and effectiveness.”
The draft laws include the establishment of a portable superannuation number, which would act much like a tax file number (TFN).
“We’ll have much better data. The data the industry gets from employers – because it’s done late at night at the kitchen table – is sometimes not right, so we improve the data, we improve the efficiency,” Vamos said.
“The efficiency is, it’s online. The effectiveness is that you’ll have better data. Once you have better data, you have fewer errors.”
The reforms would also amend the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act to provide the tax commissioner with the ability to issue mandatory superannuation data and payment standards.
Treasury has called for submissions and has set a deadline of 23 February.
