The Association of Superannuation funds of Australia (ASFA) has estimated the average early release for financial hardship withdrawal is around $8,000, as some applicants withdraw only what they need rather than the maximum of $10,000.
As of close of business 7 May, ASFA estimated 1,175,000 individual payments totalling $9.4 billion had been made.
Funds had processed 655,00 applications in week one, 290,000 in week two and 250,000 in week three.
Up to 95 applications had benefitted from straight-through processing and only triggered modest amounts of exception handling, but some funds had experienced higher levels.
Preliminary estimates indicated close to 98% of applications were paid within five working days and only a small number had been rejected due to fraud concerns or because an invalid bank number was supplied.
Dr Martin Fahy, ASFA chief executive, said: “Funds have worked cooperatively with government and regulators to change systems to process this unprecedented volume of transactions and ensure early release financial hardship payments have been made quickly and safely”.
