THE restrictive framework within which the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal works is hampering its ability to deal with fund members’ complaints.
The tribunal cannot deal with a complaint unless the trustee has had an opportunity of considering the complaint first. The tribunal’s quarterly bulletin released last week confirmed that it had to turn away 49 per cent of complaints received.
“As well as a cost in the processing of such complaints, the continuous high proportion of matters reported to be outside the tribunal’s jurisdiction create an unfortunate and incorrect impression that the tribunal does not have jurisdiction to assist in the resolution of superannuation complaints,” SCT chairman Graham McDonald said.
“It is not to the advantage of the industry for that perception to remain.”
The tribunal handled 556 new cases during the September quarter, 272 of which fell outside its jurisdiction. It represented an 8 per cent jump compared with the previous quarter.
In all, 72 complaints were in reference to account balances and calculations, 58 of which were in relation to bad administration, 36 complained about fees charged by their fund, 13 on the returns from their fund and 38 related to concerns with payment delay in transferring or rolling over into other funds.
