Stolen super returned to workers

More than half a billion dollars will be repaid to almost 400,000 Australian workers after 24,000 business admitted to underpaying staff.

More than half a billion dollars in unpaid superannuation will be repaid to almost 400,000 Australian workers.

Under the Federal Government’s superannuation guarantee amnesty, 24,000 businesses confessed to failing to pay employees their entitlements before the September 7 deadline.

New Australian Taxation Office figures show at least 393,000 employees will have money paid into their super funds, or their bank accounts if they are no longer working.

Assistant Superannuation Jane Hume said employers had disclosed and repaid $588 million in unpaid contributions, including 10 per cent interest for each year the money was outstanding.

“The superannuation amnesty has been a very successful initiative, reuniting Australians with money that in many cases they didn’t even know they were owed,” Senator Hume said.

About 55 per cent of businesses that confessed not to making compulsory payments dating back to July 1992 applied in the last week of the amnesty.

This included 7000 on the final day, as payments made before the cut-off were tax deductible.