Delays in superannuation payouts needs to change, widow says

Superannuation funds have been in the spotlight in the past week with calls for a Senate inquiry over their service and unexpected delays accessing a loved one's super and death payments.

Recounting her experiences at a women's forum in Warrnambool on September 15, Deb said after hearing the stories of others talk about their experiences in the news it seemed things had not improved since she lost Rob in 2016.

"After seven years, nothing's changed," she said.

Rob was behind the wheel of their car when he died suddenly of a heart attack.

Luckily Deb, who was in the passenger seat, managed to get the car under control but despite her desperate efforts was not able to revive the man she first fell in love with and married in her early 20s.

"It was horrendous," she said.

She said Rob was a fit and heathy 57-year-old who was not overweight, and would probably still fit into the suit he wore when they got married decades earlier.

"It was just so sudden," Deb said.

The sudden loss of Rob left Deb unable to continue working at her small accounting practice.

"I was in such shock I just couldn't," she said. "I was basically without an income."

Deb took steps to claim Rob's superannuation but was surprised how long it took to pay out.

"The superannuation fund was just so difficult to deal with. They held onto things for a long time," she said.

They'd request the same paperwork weeks later, or small variations.

"It just seemed to go on and on," Deb said.

After doing some research, she found out legislation allowed them up to six months to pay out.

"My husband's superannuation took seven months to pay. So for seven months I basically had to survive on what he had built up in annual leave and long-service leave.

Rob was a bit of a workaholic and had just enough leave banked up for her to "get by" until the superannuation finally paid out.

"If that hadn't been there I would have been relying on my children," she said.

Deb said seven years had passed but widows and widowers were still going through that same fight.

"It's absolutely disgraceful," she said.

Deb said Rob had relatives that lived to 102 so she never expected to lose him so young.

"It was not something that I was expecting, you think you'll grow old together," she said.

"Even to this day you sit there and think 'was that a dream?'. How can that possibly happen to a man that was fit and healthy?

"He'd never complained of chest problems, never slowed down, never skipped a beat but the beat he did skip was catastrophic.

"He was a wonderful man. They say the good die young, and he proved it."

Rob had grown up on a dairy farm and, after a full day's work as an accountant for a Portland business, he would come home and work on their small farm.

He would have been horrified that it took so long and that Deb had to fight so hard to get access to his superannuation, she said.

"Something needs to happen that forces these superannuation funds to pay out in a timely manner, not take the maximum allowed before they actually pay out," she said.

"I believe they are abusing the legislation that allows for those difficult circumstances. It seems they're treating those as the norm."

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