The Tax Office has already approved at least $25 billion of early superannuation withdrawals, just a couple of days into the second tranche of the emergency COVID-19 hardship scheme.
The regulator is certainly expecting the latter, warning fund members to expect delays to receiving their payments.
"High volumes of applications are expected for the start of the second tranche of the COVID-19 Early Release Scheme in early July," APRA noted in its latest update.So far, the six funds with the most withdrawals have been not-for-profit industry super funds, with the biggest of them — Australian Super — paying out the most, more than $2.4 billion.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he was not concerned about the uptake of the early access scheme, even if it was likely to exceed initial Treasury forecasts. "We got it right because we gave people an opportunity to get access to their own money, people clearly voted with their feet," he said."We forecast $29 billion, now we are at $25 billion, including the early access in the second half of the year."
While Labor has thrown its support behind those in financial hardship being able to gain early access to part of their super, Opposition financial services spokesman Stephen Jones said the Government's operation of the scheme had been "reckless"."It's just a tick-box application form, with government members encouraging people to treat their superannuation as a bank account.
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