Transport and logistics sector seen as particularly prone to participants having low or no super savings
By Rob McKay | February 8, 2013
Significant numbers of transport and logistics participants are missing out badly on superannuation, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA)
warns.
As super becomes something of a political football in the lead-up to the election, the industry’s peak body has flagged the preponderance of low super holdings or none at all
amongs those working in the ‘transport, postal and warehousing’ sector.
“Low and nil balances are relatively common for the self-employed across most industries,” the association says.
“The construction and transport industries are ones where there are both a significant number of the self-employed and [a]
large proportions with nil or low superannuation.”
It puts the total
rate of self-employed people without super at about 29 percent.
The incidence of ‘high’ superannuation balances, over $100,000, is relatively low amongst the self-employed.
For males, wage and salary earners are around twice as likely to have high balances compared to the self-employed.
Association CEO Pauline Vamos sees this as a cause of great concern.
“That means that a lot of these people will retire with very little in income,” Vamos says.
“Often their only income [is their business and] it’s hard to sell businesses.
“You’re retired a long time, so you’ve got to be saving for retirement and there are tax incentives.”
She regards this as a hugely important year for the super sector as far as employers are concerned, with reforms coming in that will see greater ease of use, transparency, Australian Tax Office compliance activity and perhaps some savings, along with the start of the slow and incremental rise in mandated
employer super contributions.
