Steve I guess the answer would be, yes about half the country's work force, if not at this very time then at some time during the 50 years when their between ages of 17-67; going on when most people start their first super-paying' job and when they'll retire.
By the way Steve you forgot the 15% contribution tax skimmed off the top by gov't on the way in [that's $150 for them and $850 left in her Super acc. for each $1000 contrib'} which they get to use/waste for approx. between 1 and 50 years while/if she survives until a minimum 60yo to retire and she gets that 9%[-15%] of her wages back. But gov'ts will probably change the tax free status of withdrawals upon retirement 10-20 times before she is 60 and a Labor gov't will probably bring back a 15% withdrawal Tax on her Super payout again which Peter Costello removed all while she has no access to her Super money which she will probably never spend because future gov'ts may decide retirees must convert all super retirement balances to a super-pension or an annuity soon. If she was to have a nice little sum upon retirement the gov't currently says she can't spend it all at once [or over 4 or 5 years] and then expect to get an aged pension as that lump sum payout is taken into account in the asset test for pension eligibility. Nor can she gift her children/relatives/anyone more that $10000 per year or $30000 over 5 years in the preceeding five years before she applies for the aged pension but she can spend some money on herself, I did see an example she can buy a new washing machine and take a holiday but I think if it is an overseas holiday it can't be more than 13 weeks outside Aust. Also she can spend some money on food and household needs a list is supplied on this human services site. http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/enablers/assets
If you think that is unreal you want to look at some of the Pension deeming rules and no doubt you'll agree we are just slightly over-governed. No wonder the black market cash economy is thriving more now than before the GST came in.
I looked at it all and asked myself, whose money is it anyway? Needless to say upon retirement I intend to enjoy myself and spend and gift all my super almost immediately should I survive that long!
