Unclaimed super obligations
APRA funds have reporting and payment obligations under the Superannuation (Unclaimed Money and Lost Members) Act 1999 (SUMLMA).
Funds are also obliged to take a member's individual circumstances into account, in line with the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993.
A fund should decide whether its actions are appropriate to members by:
- ensuring the member's best interests are your primary concern
- always making reasonable attempts to contact the member to advise them of their entitlement to a super benefit before reporting their account
- applying unclaimed money tests at the member level, not the account level.
After you have determined a member’s benefit, report and pay the amount to the ATO on the next scheduled statement date.
State and territory super schemes
The information in this protocol doesn't apply to funds that are trustees of a state or territory public sector super scheme, where the:
- relevant state or territory has laws requiring the reporting and payment of unclaimed super money to the state or territory government
- state or territory public sector super scheme complies with relevant state or territory laws.
Contact your state or territory authority to check whether your reporting obligations are to them or the ATO.
How to report to ATO
Where a state or territory doesn't have laws requiring the reporting of unclaimed super money to the state or territory government, the state or territory public sector super scheme is required to report to the ATO, as outlined in this protocol.
Funds must report and pay in the approved form by the scheduled statement due dates. For information on when and how to report unclaimed super, see Your reporting obligations.
Separately report any accounts with New Zealand sourced amounts or unclaimed super.
If you have no unclaimed money, lost member accounts or inactive low-balance accounts to report and pay, you're required to advise us of this by lodging a non-lodgment advice.
If exceptional or unforeseen circumstances impact your ability to lodge or pay by a due date, you can request a deferral of your reporting obligations
For more information on how successor fund transfers (SFT) and intra fund transfers (IFT) impact unclaimed super money and lost member reporting, see Successor and intra-fund transfer reporting.
Scheduled due dates for unclaimed super
APRA funds are to report and pay unclaimed super money (USM) in the approved form by the scheduled statement due dates as follows:
- for an unclaimed money day being 31 December of any year – 30 April of the following year
- for an unclaimed money day being 30 June of any year – 31 October of that year.
Note: These scheduled due dates don't apply to trustee voluntary payments (TVPs). However, the existing USM effective dates can be used to report TVP.
The approved form contains all the information, statements, and declarations you're required to provide. You don't have the discretion to determine what information will or will not be provided.
If you have no unclaimed money, lost member accounts or inactive low-balance accounts to report and pay, you're required to advise us of this by lodging a non-lodgment advice.
Reporting where more than one type of USM applies
Where a member of a super fund meets the definition of having more than one type of unclaimed super money (USM), the order of precedence is outlined in legislation as follows:
- Non-member spouse or deceased member
- Member who is a former temporary resident identified on a section 20C notice
- Member who has reached eligibility age
- Small or insoluble lost member account
- Inactive low-balance account
- Trustee voluntary payment
Make sure lodgment has been accepted
To ensure lodgment is successful:
- USM parent form lodgment and payment total amounts need to match.
- Payment with a matching PRN must be sent at the same time as the message to the ATO SuperStream bank account. PRNs are case and space sensitive.
If we successfully process your data message, we will send your gateway an unclaimed super money outcome response (USMOR) message within 3 working days. USMORs may be delayed during peak USM lodgment periods.
You must take action in the following situations to make sure that we have accepted and processed your lodgment:
- If your gateway didn’t receive an USMOR, and
- also didn't receive a technical receipt – your gateway provider should re-send the message
- did receive a technical receipt – lodge a request via the Super Enquiry Service with details of the technical receipt.
- Prompt notification of reporting issues is critical to ensure your members are not affected. You must reconcile your data and payment messages in a timely manner.
- If you get a data message error – you must take the necessary corrective action and resend the message within 30 days. When you re-send your data, use the same payment reference number (PRN) on the matching payment message to ensure synchronisation occurs. For help with matching new messages with old payments lodge a request via the Super Enquiry Service.
- If we receive a payment but we reject or don’t receive the matching data message, we will not return the payment to you. Payments of USM cannot be automatically refunded, please refer to why we can't automatically refund USM for more information.