Big earners miss out on super

The Pilbara, Darwin and the north-west region in Queensland are the areas with the highest

proportion of people with lost

superannuation, according to a Westpac report on lost super.

The report showed that high turnover of fly-in fly-out mining workers and employees hired on a shorter-term basis had probably contributed to the Pilbara having an estimated lost super per person of $3332.$3332. By region, inner-Brisbane ranked No. 4 on the list, followed by inner-Sydney and south-eastern WA.

"You've got very high proportions of losses in remote areas when you have people entering those regions for specific work," said Westpac's group head of superannuation, Melanie Evans. "You also have

people entering regions such as the Pilbara having many jobs over their lifetimes. And they're likely to be very mobile within those regions."

The total of unclaimed superannuation last year amounted to $17.4 billion, down from $20.2 billion in 2010, according to data from the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation.

Closely following the remote regions, inner-city areas are rife with lost super holdings. The biggest category in those areas was under 40-year-old workers, who have had four or more jobs in their first cade of work, Ms Evans said.

"From our research, it is particularly worrying to see the lack of motivation from younger Australians to take ownership of their super given it's money they have earned."

The Westpac research showed that 61.8 per cent of employees under the age of 40 were likely to have lost super, compared with

41.4 per cent of those between

40 and 59. Of those who were 60 and above, only 21.1 per cent were likely to be missing funds owed to them.

New South Wales had $5.36 billion in unclaimed super, ahead of

Victoria with $4.47 billion, according to Westpac. Queensland had $3.18 billion in lost super, compared with WA which had 2.04 billion.

"The best way for people to avoid losing super is to ensure that their super fund has their tax file number," said the Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation, Bill Shorten.

The government offers a tool for people to track down abandoned super holdings, at www.ato.gov.au/superseeker.

In a move to increase Australians' retirement nest eggs, the superannuation guarantee will rise to 12 per cent from its present 9 per cent,

progressively over six years beginning in July 2013.

The passive nature of the superannuation system in which funds are set aside by companies for employees as soon as they start a job often sees employees failing to switch over their holdings when they switch employers.

Super fund tracking group Chant West forecasts that the median growth super fund, with an

allocation of between 61 and 80 per cent in growth assets, will have grown by 1 per cent in the year to June, amid volatile sharemarkets and sinking commodities prices.