The federal government will examine the creation of an advocacy body to represent consumers in the course of policy discussions and will also boost funding to resolve outstanding complaints still before the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT).
Funding for the new body, currently referred to as the Superannuation Consumer Advocate, would total $100,000 in the 2020 financial year.
The funds will be drawn from existing resources in Treasury, which will conduct an expression of interest process to identify options for the establishment of the advocate.
According to a department spokesperson, the process would examine whether an existing or new body would be best suited for the task and follows recommendations from the financial services royal commission for better consumer representation in the superannuation sector.
The government will also provide the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) with an additional $2.3 million over three years from 2020/21 to resolve outstanding complaints from the SCT, which is due to close by 31 December 2020.
The funding was outlined in the 2019/20 budget papers and has been set aside due to the delayed commencement of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority and will allow ASIC to manage the closure of the SCT, the papers stated.
The papers added funding for the SCT closure would be drawn from industry, stating “the cost of this measure will be offset by a corresponding increase in the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority financial institutions supervisory levies”.
