Extend co-contribution says ASFA
Pauline Vamos
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has used its pre-Budget submission to call for measures to lift private savings at the same time as moving to encourage soft-compulsion with respect to employee superannuation contributions.
Outlining the detail of the submission today, ASFA chief executive Pauline Vamos said her organisation was also urging the Government to extend the co-contributions regime and to change the law to allow salary sacrifice arrangements to be available to all employees on request.
She said that the underlying strategy was to lift private savings to act as an anti-inflationary mechanism.
“The Prime Minister has indicated that a key part of the Government’s five-point plan of action is to foster a culture of savings, and ASFA’s pre-Budget submission ties in closely with this proposal,” she said.
“Our recommendations would help take pressure off inflation, assist people to save for the future and help lift national savings,” Vamos said.
With respect to soft compulsion, the submission urges that employers be encouraged to help employees contribute an additional 1 per cent of salary or wages each time they receive a wage increase, while on soft compulsion it suggests lifting the upper threshold to $60,000 a year.
On salary sacrifice, the submission points out that recent research suggests that as many as one in four employees are either denied the opportunity to pay more into superannuation or do not realise they can.
AUTHOR
Mike Taylor
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