A relatively small number of Employee Members have one or more ‘offset accounts’ in the APSS. Check your last APSS benefit statement to see if you have one.
An
offset account
is created if you have accessed some of your defined benefit entitlement early, for example, to start a transition to retirement pension, because of financial hardship or as part of the COVID-19 early release scheme in 2020.
If you have more than one type of offset account in the APSS, on transfer, they will be combined into a single offset account within the APSS Plan in Australian Retirement Trust, as explained on page 16 of your
Significant Event Notice
.
If you also have an APSS Member Savings account and one or more offset account(s), your APSS Member Savings will be used to reduce your offset account balance at transfer date.
If you have any APSS Member Savings as at the transfer date, as well as one or more offset accounts, your APSS Member Savings will automatically be used to reduce the balance of your new, combined Australian Retirement Trust offset account. For example, suppose you have $20,000 in an APSS Member Savings account and a $15,000 offset account balance. In this case, $15,000 will be automatically transferred from your APSS Member Savings account to your offset account balance to reduce it to $0 at the transfer date. That will then leave you with $5,000 of APSS Member Savings in your new Additional accumulation account in the APSS Plan within Australian Retirement Trust. This means your offset account balance will be closed.
Important! If you do not want any Member Savings you have to be used to automatically reduce your offset account balance(s), be sure to read the Transfer guide that Australian Retirement Trust will issue, which includes more information. you will need to make sure that you
email
Australian Retirement Trust before the transfer to 'opt out' of this automatic reduction of Member Savings and offset accounts, or call them on the 1800 652 643 transition hotline.