Older individuals often forget to perform checks on their retirement savings.
It is essential that individuals check that their retirement savings are on track to finance their planned standard of living in retirement. Otherwise, they could be left short when they are ready to retire.
A common time to perform these checks is in the final decade before the date of intended retirement; however, it is a good idea to perform them throughout a person’s working life.
Performing these checks can also allow an individual to focus on maximising their super in the countdown to their retirement.
Policymakers are also interested in retirement savings checks as it allows them to gain an understanding of whether Australia’s retirement savings will be adequate, or if there will be strong demand for the age pension.
An amnesty scheme which ended earlier this month has caused around 24,000 businesses to admit to underpayment of their worker’s super. A total of 588 million dollars will be distributed to almost 400,00 individuals.
The scheme, which covered payments from the introduction of super in 1992, gave employers the opportunity to come clean without any consequences as long as they paid the unpaid super as well as 10% interest for every year the money was overdue.
The ATO will be directing its attention at any businesses that did not admit fault and these businesses will face severe penalties.
Many individuals are looking to access their superannuation early in order to have support during these times. Although there is criticism of early access to super, this facility has been helpful to many families to keep afloat.
