Aussie savers drop their superannuation
Australians are withdrawing their savings from their super funds, with personal contributions dropping by more than 55% over the past two financial years.
Independent researcher SuperRatings have released the figures, reported in The Australian, which showed that contributions continued to drop last year despite a turnaround in superannuation fund returns after the initial hit from the global financial crisis (GFC) when they dropped 32%.
The GFC and consistently negative returns from super would have translated into a lack of confidence by some people in continuing to invest in superannuation, SuperRatings managing director, Jeff Bresnahan said.
“Those in and around retirement would have been asking ‘When is it all going to end’,” he said.
Even though super funds staged a great recovery in the last six months to finish with double digit returns at the end of 2009, the industry believes voluntary contributions could still continue to fall.
The Government’s review of superannuation and the possibility of future changes could also fuel uncertainty.
The median balanced super option – where most Australians have their super- returned 12.9% last year.
