ASIC is suing AustralianSuper alleging almost 7,000 death benefit claimants waited too long to be paid.
According to proceedings filed in the Federal Court, ASIC alleges between 1 July 2019 and 18 October 2024, the company failed to process death benefit claims efficiently, honestly, and fairly.
It says it took between four months and four years from the date the claim form was returned to assess at least 6,897 death benefit claims.
ASIC also alleges AustralianSuper failed to pay member’s benefits as soon as practicable after the member’s death in respect of at least 752 members.
In one case, despite having all the information required to pay the benefit, ASIC says it took AustralianSuper 1,140 days to make the payment; others took 438, 412 and 366 days.
In 254 cases, AustralianSuper took between 15 to 213 days to provide the claim form, according to ASIC’s allegations.
ASIC Deputy Chair, Sarah Court says: “It is vital that death benefit claims are processed in a timely manner. Delays are likely to cause further pain and anxiety to people who are already suffering from grief, making what is already a difficult time even harder.”
In a statement, AustralianSuper says it is considering ASIC’s claim carefully and “will respond on the substance of the claim in due course”.
The company points to a sharp increase in member deaths during the covid years, compounded by the impact of the pandemic on its staffing numbers.
“We recognised this and developed a strategy with our service provider to clear the backlog of claims,” states the firm.
…we made the significant decision to bring the processing of death claims in house.
“Despite some improvement, we were not satisfied the backlog was reducing fast enough so we made the significant decision to bring the processing of death claims in house.
“Since our in-house bereavement centre was launched in April 2024 with 75 dedicated case managers handling death claims from start to finish, we have seen a significant reduction in claim processing times.”
Last November, ASIC initiated civil penalty proceedings against United Super, the trustee of Cbus, alleging delays in processing death benefit and total and permanent disability claims affecting more than 10,000 members and claimants.
