Lost and Inactive Super Accounts

What makes an account inactive low-balance

The ATO applies six tests, and all of them have to be met:

1. no amount has been credited to the account within the last 16 months,
2. the account balance is less than $6,000,
3. you have not met a prescribed condition of release,
4. the account is not a defined benefit account,
5. there is no insurance on the account, and
6. the account is not held in a self-managed fund or a small APRA fund.

The insurance test is the one that matters most in practice. If the account still carries cover, it is not caught — but that usually also means the fees are quietly eating the balance, which is its own problem.

Source: Australian Taxation Office — Inactive low-balance super accounts, read in full 13 October 2026. General information only, not personal financial advice.

Five things that stop it being treated as inactive

Even if the six tests are met, the account is not an inactive low-balance account if in the last 16 months you have done any of these:

• changed your investment options,
• elected to maintain insurance on the account,
• made changes to your insurance coverage,
• made or amended a binding beneficiary nomination, or
• given your fund a written notice electing not to be a member of an inactive low-balance account.

Depending on how your account is structured, the fund may apply these tests at a product level, so only part of the account is paid to the ATO.

When funds report and pay

What happens to the money

You are not required to do anything. The fund transfers the balance to the ATO and, where possible, the ATO proactively consolidates it into an active super account on your behalf. That is a change from the old system, where money could sit with the ATO indefinitely while you did nothing.

If you do not want an account transferred, you have three options:

• consolidate your super accounts yourself in ATO online services,
• contact your super fund, or
• give the fund a written notice declaring you are not a member with an inactive low-balance account — valid for 16 months.

Checking what you have

1. Log in to ATO online services through myGov.
2. Select Super, then Information to see funds in your name and any ATO-held amounts.
3. If you are a temporary resident who has left Australia, your super is handled separately — see the departing Australia superannuation payment page.

The account has to have your tax file number for most of this to work normally. Without a TFN the fund cannot accept some contributions, and money can be taxed at the top rate instead of 15%.

Why it is worth five minutes

Two or three forgotten accounts are common after a few job changes. Each one carries its own administration fee and its own insurance premium, both paid out of a balance that is not growing. Consolidating does not just tidy up a list — it stops fees being charged three times over for the same person.