AFP Investigating Early Super Release Fraud

An article regarding the AFP investigating early super release fraud after it was discovered by the ATO.

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An article regarding a victim of the fraud.

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An article advising people to check their super balance.

Superannuation bosses warn the Federal Government in advance of the restart of early super release.

Another case of super being stolen by alleged scammers.

Domain (real estate) website has been promoting the early release of super. They recently has a working couple that didn’t have enough savings for a deposit for a house and it was promoted with the raid unto the super ($20K each) and the government’s grant, they amassed a deposit of $80K very quickly and enough now for a house deposit.

I am sure that the intention of the early release of super was not for use for house deposits.

What Domain didn’t say is that the example they gave (and many of their ‘advertorials’) seemed to be a blatant disregard of the early access super rules and it is likely that the couple they are promoting (and anyone else who followed their actions based on the Domain promotion) may get in hot water with the ATO.

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Talking about scams and the ATO.

A follow up to this article.

The latest episode.

And the ATO is going to “recoup” the money.

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The eligibility criteria are spelt out in the following.

There are no explicit conditions applied to how the withdrawals are to be spent. There is the following statement which indicated intent:

To be eligible, a citizen or permanent resident of Australia and New Zealand must require the COVID-19 early release of super to assist them to deal with the adverse economic effects of COVID-19.

Whether using the withdrawal as a deposit for buying a property is ‘assisting’ a person to deal with adverse economic conditions, there is no test specified.

However there are other qualifying conditions. Most of these suggest any qualifying applicants are unlikely to get acceptance of a loan application from a bank etc.

Eligibility

In addition, one of the following circumstances must apply:

  • you are unemployed
  • you are eligible to receive one of the following
    • JobSeeker payment
    • Youth Allowance for job seekers (unless you are undertaking full-time study or are a new apprentice)
    • Parenting payment (which includes the single and partnered payments)
    • Special Benefit
    • Farm Household Allowance
  • on or after 1 January 2020 either
    • you were made redundant
    • your working hours were reduced by 20% or more (including to zero)
    • you were a sole trader and your business was suspended or there was a reduction in turnover of 20% or more (partners in a partnership are not eligible unless the partner satisfies any other of the eligibility).
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