Reporting changes to lost status
Whenever there's a change to the 'lost' status of the individual this must be reported to us via the MAAS. The following situations would indicate that you're required to submit a MAAS update:
- Contact with the provider has been re-established and the member has retained their benefit in the provider. You must update the Lost status account attribute to 'not lost'.
- A contribution or rollover has been received for a member previously considered lost. You must update the Lost status account attribute to 'not lost'.
- The member has re-established contact with you and elected to cash their benefit in because it was under $200 or another condition of release was met. You must update the Account Phase and Account Status to 'closed'.
- Contact with you has been re-established and the member has transferred their benefit to another provider. You must update the Account Phase and Account Status to 'closed'.
- The member has been transferred to a successor fund as a lost member. You must update the Account Phase and Account Status to 'closed'.
- The member’s account has become unclaimed super money and was paid to the ATO or to a state or territory authority. You must update the Account Phase and Account Status to 'closed'.
Lost member accounts for USM
You must update the Account status and Account phase to 'closed' if you've reported and paid the account to us as a USM lost member account for the same period.
Undertaking your USM reporting helps you to identify which members' accounts you've reported and paid to us and will enable you to update the account to closed.
This ensures the members accounts are displayed accurately and not displayed as both 'lost' and 'ATO-held monies' in our Online services for individuals.
How intra-fund transfers (IFTs) and successor fund transfers (SFTs) impact lost member accounts
An intra-fund transfer does not result in the fund receiving an amount in respect of the member. Therefore, when considering whether an amount has been received for the member within the last 2 years and whether there has been contact in the last 5 years, those time periods will not be interrupted by the intra-fund transfer. That is, an intra-fund transfer does not reset the clock on the test conditions for lost members.
If a lost member's super benefit is transferred to a successor fund, the member’s ‘lost’ status moves from the transferring fund to the receiving fund. The successor fund must open the new account with the Lost status member account attribute as 'lost'.
Money held for a lost member remains with the successor fund, unless it meets the definition of a lost member account at the end of an unclaimed money day. In these cases, it is paid to us as USM.
Provision of member information
We may provide member information to you through various channels. The main method will be through the MAAS using 2 interactions:
- The maintain member account interaction is used to report a member account as 'lost uncontactable' or 'lost inactive' and receive member details in our response. Reporting must be done using the MAAS form.
- The Provision of details (POD) service is an optional interaction that allows you and your administrator to request member information we hold. or members at risk of becoming lost in accordance with the regulations), where you require updated member/account information, you may choose to use this service. How you are able to use the information will depend on whether the member is currently considered lost according to the regulations or whether the super provider considers the member at risk of becoming lost.
For more information, see Provision of member information protocol.