The Australian Taxation Office has revealed the staggering figures of lost and unclaimed super across Australia, with Katherine's number reaching high into the millions.
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The latest data shows there is almost $21 billion in super waiting to be claimed by Australians, of that $8.5 million remains unclaimed in Katherine.
The ATO publishes the figures annually to help people find superannuation they have lost touch with, highlighting postcodes and accounts with the highest amounts.
Across the Northern Territory, 47,633 accounts hold a total of $258,446,858 lost and unclaimed super.
Under new laws which started in July, superannuation funds must report and pay fees on inactive accounts, this includes accounts which have not received a contribution for 16 months and have a balance below $6,000.
"In total, we've received over 2.3 million inactive low balance accounts from super funds, valued at approximately $2.16 billion," Assistant Commissioner Graham Whyte said.
"We are now working to reunite Australians with these amounts by either transferring it into an active super account, or directly into their bank account where the amount is less than $200 or the member is aged over 65 years.
"So far, we have reunited just over 841,000 accounts worth nearly $1.38 billion. This includes approximately 684,000 accounts worth $1.22 billion that have been transferred into an individual's active super account and approximately 157,000 accounts worth $161 million directly to individuals' bank accounts. We will be continuing this work throughout November and into the future."
Mr Whyte said he expects more than one million people will receive a direct payment, including one woman who will receive $1.5 million.
"With the ATO now able to reunite these inactive low balance accounts and previously unclaimed accounts, we've already started to see some incredible examples of people receiving meaningful boosts to their retirement savings.
"One woman aged 68 will be directly paid over $1.5 million that was unclaimed and she'd lost touch with.
"Another woman was previously reunited with over $600,000 of unclaimed super after losing her home in a bushfire. As she was over 65, we were able to pay that money directly to her and she is now able to use this money to rebuild her life," he said.
For information on how to manage your super and view all your super accounts including lost and unclaimed super, visit the ATO here.
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