ATO alone wholly responsible for identifying super early release applicants

The Federal Government has confirmed that the Australian Taxation Office will be wholly responsible for identifying and verifying hardship early release superannuation candidates, with no involvement on the part of AUSTRAC.

The confirmation has been delivered by the Assistant Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and Financial Technology, Senator Jane Hume who has outlined an early release procedure in which the ATO will be the ultimate arbiter.

She said that AUSTRAC had confirmed that superannuation funds could rely on the ATO’s customer verification and that members would not even need to contact their superannuation funds at any time in the process.

Addressing a conference, Hume said that as far as administration goes, it will be as simple as possible, using existing mechanisms:

• Applications are to the ATO via MyGov website;
• The ATO will verify the applicant, assess the application, record the bank account details, and make a decision;
• The ATO will then direct the nominated fund to release the requested amount to the bank account specified by the member;
• AUSTRAC has confirmed that superfunds can rely on the ATO’s customer verification; and
• The member does not need to contact the super fund AT ALL in the process.