Employers need SGC education, report says

Superfunds should increase employer awareness of the obligations they will face when the new quarterly superannuation guarantee contribution (SGC) regime is introduced on July 1, warns aKPMGreport.

The additional requirements according to KPMG superannuation services manager Wayne Hirt, means employers need to:

* provide employees with written notification of the value and destination of their super within 30 days of a payment;

all contributions must be remitted to their super fund within 28 days at the end of each quarter; and

* consideration needs to be made of small super guarantee payments for casual and transient employees.

The report, theKPMGPublic Offer Superannuation Fund Index, details fund size in terms of both members and assets under management, the number of investment options offered by each fund, and compares ongoing administration costs that funds charge small, medium and large employers as at December 31, 2002.

Hirt says super funds should be taking immediate action to ensure that employers understand the impact of the new quarterly requirements.

KPMG foresees that the cost of fund administration is likely to increase where employers continually fail to meet the super guarantee deadline, and therefore recommends effective communication of future procedures to counteract these problems.

The survey also reveals that membership in the participating funds increased by an average of 9.1 per cent over the year to December 31, 2002, and the asset levels of participants increased at an average of 12.6 per cent over the same period, despite continuing weak investment conditions.