In the SCT’s latest Quarterly Bulletin, the tribunal revealed it also received 612 new written complaints during the quarter – down slightly on the June quarter.
Complaints about administration procedures within superannuation funds made up the largest category of written complaints at 42 per cent.
Written death benefit complaints were the second largest category (34 per cent), followed by disability complaints (20 per cent).
Just over half (55 per cent) of the written complaints received by the SCT during the September quarter were within the tribunal’s jurisdiction (down from 62 per cent in the previous quarter).
Telephone inquiries to the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal were up 11 per cent in the September quarter, while written complaints dropped slightly.
The SCT received 3,285 telephone calls in the September 2013 quarter, up from 2,911 in the previous quarter.
In her introduction to the report, SCT chairperson Jocelyn Furlan drew attention to the new time limit for “some types” of total and permanent complaints from two years up to a maximum of six years.
Ms Furlan also noted that the tribunal’s jurisdiction has been expanded in relation to the reporting trustees make to the Commissioner for Taxation about individual members.
From 1 July 2013, trustees are required to provide the SCT with notice about decisions relating to member complaints “at the time the trustee gives notice of its decision”, she said.
The SCT is also obliged to notify APRA or ASIC if a contravention of any law or governing rule of the superannuation fund “may have occurred”, said Ms Furlan.
