SUPER CHECK
by Louise Falsone, 21/06/2007

Do the details on your pay slip ensure that you have been paid what has been printed on your pay slip?

Most of us need to access the cash paid to us and will realise very quickly if there is any anomaly between what has been credited to our bank account and our pay slip. However what about our employer super contributions? Do you check that the super payments employers make on your behalf have been paid into your super fund? Most would answer they do not.

By law, employers must pay 9%of their employees' wages into super if they earn more than $450 before tax in a calendar month or are aged under 18 and working 30 hours or less a week or if the employee is aged over 70. This 9% is known as Superannuation Guarantee Charge (SGC) and must be made every quarter and not paid later than 28 days from the end of the quarter.

Frighteningly, there have been cases reported where employers have detailed SG contributions on employees’ payslips and the super contributions have not been paid into employees’ super funds, both intentionally and by error. Watching a disturbing news story recently on this has prompted me to bring it to the attention of our Hudson members.

Hopefully, all members who are employees have had their compulsory employer super contributions made on their behalf into their super funds.  I suggest you check with your super fund that all your contributions have been deposited into your fund to date. Going forward I recommend you get into the habit of checking your super contributions regularly like you do with your salary paid into your bank account. A quick phone call to your super fund now and regularly reviewing your super statements to check your employer contributions can alleviate the ramifications of a reduction in your retirement nest egg, which depending upon the time until your retirement may be of great significance.