COVID-19 Early Release Scheme - Issue 9 accessible version

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

This dashboard contains the latest data on the COVID-19 Superannuation Early Release Scheme, for the period ending 21June 2020:

Current status of applications:

• $17.1bn payments made; 
• $7,492 average payment; 
• 2.4m applications received; 
• 2.3m applications paid; 
• 3.3 business days on average to pay an application*, 
• 95% applications paid within five business days*.

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

Value of applications: The week ending 21 June 2020 presented a cumulative of $18.0bn in applications received and a cumulative of $17.1bn of applications paid.

Payment status: 94% applications were paid and 4% applications are in process.

Processing times for payments: 95% applications were paid within five business days.

Number of applications: 2.4mil applications received and 2.3mil applications paid during week ending in 21 June 2020.

Distribution of processing times: 19% applications were processed in one business day, 11% in two, 16% in three, 43% in four, 6% in five, 2% 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 21 June 2020 from 177 funds. Funds have submitted on a best endeavours basis.

Over the period from the inception of the scheme on 20 April to 21 June, payments made to eligible members have taken an average of 3.3 business days after receipt of the application from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) and 95 per cent have been made within five business days.

Over the week to 21 June, superannuation funds made payments to 154,000 members, bringing the total number of payments to approximately 2.3 million since inception. The total value of payments during the week was $1.2 billion, with $17.1 billion paid since inception. The average payment made over the period since inception is $7,492.

Fund-level data

The fund-level data shows that 150 of the 177 funds (85 per cent) that submitted data made early release payments in the period since inception to 21 June 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). 

Among all funds that submitted data, 133 (89 per cent) completed more than 90 per cent of payments within the five business days guideline indicated by APRA. Further, with limited exceptions (1.8 per cent), payments to members have been completed within ten or more business days from receipt of applications from the ATO.

The ten funds with the highest number of applications received from the ATO have made 1.52 million payments worth a total of $11.21 billion. The average payment from these funds was $7,380, with over 95 per cent of payments made within five days.

Details of the industry-level data is provided below:

•    This link provides details on payments and processing timeframes for funds that have made payments to members in the period ending 21 June 2020.

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