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If you have been financially affected by COVID-19, you may be able to access some of your superannuation early.

Many will argue that this should be a last resort for two reasons:

• If you don’t have sufficient cash to cover the payment you may be disposing of assets in a time where their value has significantly dipped; and
• A withdrawal now by somebody with a long time to retirement can have a significant impact on the super balance once they actually reach retirement.

Eligible citizens and permanent residents of Australia or New Zealand can apply for up to $10,000 in 2019–20 and up to a further $10,000 in 2020–21.

Eligible temporary residents are able to apply once to access up to $10,000 of super in 2019–20.

To be eligible for early release of super, a citizen or permanent resident of Australia and New Zealand must be in one of the following circumstances:

• You are unemployed.
• You are eligible to receive one of the following
  • jobseeker payment
  • youth allowance for jobseekers (unless you are undertaking full-time study or are a new apprentice)
  • parenting payment (which includes the single and partnered payments)
  • special benefit
  • farm household allowance.
• On or after 1 January 2020 either
  • you were made redundant
  • your working hours were reduced by 20% or more (including to zero)
  • you were a sole trader and your business was suspended or there was a reduction in turnover of 20% or more.

Temporary residents

To be eligible for early release of super, temporary residents must be in one of the following circumstances:

• You hold a student visa that you have held for 12 months or more and you are unable to meet immediate living expenses.
• You are a temporary skilled work visa holder, your working hours have reduced to zero and you remain engaged with your employer.
• You are a temporary resident visa holder (excluding student or skilled worker visas) and you cannot meet immediate living expenses.

Applications can be submitted online through myGov:

• until 30 June 2020 for the 2019–20 year
• between 1 July 2020 and 24 September 2020, for the 2020–21 year.

You will not need to pay tax on amounts released and will not need to include these amounts in your tax which means you obtain the full $10,000 benefit.

Given over 800,000 Australians have already made applications, it would suggest the ATO’s relief was a successful initiative.

For further information on this relief measure, please contact us at 1300 845 901.

The information in this article contains general advice and is provided by Primestock Securities Ltd AFSL 239180. That advice has been prepared without taking your personal objectives, financial situation or needs into account. Before acting on this general advice, you should consider the appropriateness of it having regard to your personal objectives, financial situation and needs. You should obtain and read the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) before making any decision to acquire any financial product referred to in this article. Please refer to the FSG (primefinancial.com.au/fsg) for contact information and information about remuneration and associations with product issuers. This information should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional advice, and we encourage you to seek specific advice from your professional adviser before making a decision on the matters discussed in this article. Information in this article is current at the date of this article, and we have no obligation to update or revise it as a result of any change in events, circumstances or conditions upon which it is based.