“Left on hold” – super funds can do better on complaints

ASIC has released a damning report finding that some super funds are subjecting people to more than month-long waits for responses to complaints.

To comply with the law, super funds have a maximum of 45 days to respond to a complaint. Other financial service providers have 30 days to respond. ASIC found that at some funds, complaint responses in more than 20% of cases were taking longer than 45 days allowed.

“Consumers have been left on hold for too long, it’s time for super funds to stop talking about putting members first and actually respond to complaints on time. Perversely, super funds lobbied for longer response times than banks and insurers and now we find they can’t even keep to these generous timeframes,” says Director at Super Consumers Australia, Xavier O’Halloran.

On a positive note, ASIC found evidence that one super fund was responding to 99% of its complaints within the 45 day timeframe. This fund had basic processes in place, like ensuring individual staff were accountable for properly classifying complaints, and escalating and solving those that were at risk of being delayed.

“Clearly the industry has a lot to learn from this super fund. There needs to be greater transparency of claims-handling delays and customer service outcomes in general. At the moment, consumers have little idea of what they can expect when selecting a super fund. We’d like to see this fund come forward and share its experience with the rest of the industry.”

“We welcome the calls by Minister Jones that super fund customer experience needs to improve across the board and that the Government and the regulators will take steps to lift these standards.”