COVID-19 Early Release Scheme - Issue 13 accessible version

This dashboard contains the latest data on the COVID-19 Superannuation Early Release Scheme, from inception of the Scheme to 19 July 2020.

High volumes of applications are expected for the start of the second tranche of the COVID-19 Early Release Scheme in early July. This may impact the processing time for payments being made by funds.  

Current status of payments: 

• $28.0bn payments made; 
• $7,719 average payment; 
• 3.3 business days on average to pay an application*, 
• 96% applications paid within five business days*.

*The payment processing period is measured from the date the super fund receives applications from the ATO.

Initial application: 

• 2.9mil applications received#; 
• $7,407 average application amount.

Repeat application:

• 1.0mil applications received; 
• $8,619 average application amount.

# The number of initial applications exceeds the number of individuals that have applied since some have applied from more than one account. Initial applications are first applications made since the inception of the Scheme and repeat applications are additional applications made for those same accounts. 

Value of applications (cumulative): The week ending 19 July 2020 presented a cumulative of $29.7bn in applications received and a cumulative of $28.0bn of applications paid.

Payment status: 94% applications were paid and 10% applications are in process.

Processing times for payments: 96% of applications paid were paid within five business days.

Number of applications^: 

• 0.66mil applications received during Week 1 of Period 1. 
• 1.08mil applications received during Week 2 of Period 1. 
• 1.34mil applications received during Week 3 of Period 1. 
• 1.59mil applications received Week 4 of Period 1. 
• 1.78mil applications received during Week 5 of Period 1. 
• 1.96mil applications received during Week 6 of Period 1. 
• 2.12mil applications received during Week 7 of Period 1. 
• 2.27mil applications received during Week 8 of Period 1. 
• 2.41mil applications received during Week 9 of Period 1. 
• 2.5mil applications received during Week 10 of Period 1. 
• 0.33mil repeat applications and 0.98mil initial applications received in Week 3 of Period 2.

^ This dashboard defines Period 1 as 20 April to 28 June 2020 and Period 2 as 29 June to 19 July 2020. 

Distribution of processing times: 19% applications were processed in one business day, 11% in two, 15% in three, 46% in four, 5% in five, 1% in six, 1% in seven, 1% in eight, 0% in nine, 1% in ten or more.

Additional Commentary

APRA has received early release data submissions for the period ended 19 July 2020 from 176 funds. Funds have submitted on a best endeavours basis.

Over the period from the inception of the scheme on 20 April to 19 July, payments made to eligible members have taken an average of 3.3 business days after receipt by funds of the application from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and 98.5 per cent have been made within five business days.

Over the week to 19 July, 219,000 applications were received by funds of which 56,000 were initial applications and 163,000 were repeat applications. This brought the total number of initial applications to 2.9 million and repeat applications to 1.0 million since the inception of the scheme. 

Over the week to 19 July, superannuation funds made payments to 349,000 members, bringing the total number of payments by funds to their members to approximately 3.6 million since inception. The total value of payments during the week was $2.7 billion, with $28.0 billion paid since inception. The average payment made over the period since inception is $7,719 overall and $8,619 when considering repeat applications only.

As at 19 July 2020, 94 per cent of applications received since inception had been paid. This is an increase from the previous week (90 per cent) as funds continue to process the large volume of applications received in early July. 

Fund-level data

The fund-level data shows that 151 of the 176 funds (86 per cent) that submitted data made early release payments in the period since inception to 19 July 2020. (Note that the fund-level data includes 40 funds for which the data has been published as a group in order to protect the privacy of information for individual members). Further, 140 of the funds have reported repeat applications received.

Among all funds that made payments, 109 (72 per cent) completed more than 90 per cent of payments within the five business days guideline indicated by APRA. With limited exceptions (1.2 per cent), payments to members have been completed within nine or fewer business days from receipt of applications from the ATO.

The 10 funds with the highest number of applications received from the ATO have made 2.4 million payments worth a total of $18.3 billion. The average payment from these funds was $7,645, with 96 per cent of payments made within five days. 

Details of the industry-level data (entities with more than four members) is provided below:

• This link provides details on payments and processing timeframes for funds that have made payments to members in the period ending 19 July 2020.

• This link provides a summary of the data that has been reported to APRA by funds for that period.

• The reporting week from 29 June 2020 to 5 July 2020 included the end of the period for which members could apply for up to $10,000 for the 2019/20 financial year and the start of the period for which members could apply for up to $10,000 for the 2020/21 financial year. It therefore included a mix of applications received that relate to each of the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years.
  
   
• An ‘initial application’ is the first application made in respect of a member account whether this occurred in the 2019/20 financial year application period or the 2020/21 financial year application period. A ‘repeat application’ is an application for a member account that previously submitted an initial application.  All repeat applications relate to the 2020/21 financial year application period.
  
   
• The number of initial applications is measured by member accounts and exceeds the number of underlying individuals with approved applications since some individuals have applied across more than one superannuation account.