Aussies raid industry superannuation funds

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APRA has released its weekly update on the Morrison Government’s early superannuation release program, which reveals that a whopping $6.1 billion was withdrawn in the week ended 12 July:

Over the course of the scheme, more than 2.5 million Australians have withdrawn $25.3 billion from their retirement nest eggs, averaging $7,718 per withdrawal.

As shown in the below charts, the top six targets for superannuation withdrawals were all industry funds, which combined accounted for just over half of total early superannuation withdrawals in both number and value terms:

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I am expecting further strong growth in superannuation withdrawals, given there was another $2.7 billion in the application pipeline as at 12 July:

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Under the Morrison Government’s early release policy, superannuants experiencing financial difficulty were permitted to withdraw $10,000 from their superannuation accounts in 2019-20 and then another $10,000 in 2020-21.

The arrival of the new financial year has clearly triggered a tsunami of withdrawal requests.

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.