Dozens of members of the superannuation fund Hesta say they've been caught unawares and are unable to access their super assets. Hesta one of Australia’s largest super funds is in the middle of a planned outage lasting for seven weeks. Despite the fund alerting members in February some say they didn't receive the message and are now suffering financially.
00:00Annette Mumford is transitioning to retirement and she says she hasn't been able to access her money because of an outage at her super fund.
00:09I was so distressed thinking, oh my gosh, because there's no time for planning because it had already closed down without me knowing in advance.
00:18Hester says it notified customers back in February about the planned outage, sending nearly 1 million members an email as well as 87,000 letters.
00:26A spokesperson said, where emails bounced, we followed up by sending the significant event notice via post.
00:33Really, they should be making the effort to call people and let them know that they're going to be subject to this period of time where they won't be able to access their money and what they can do to mitigate against any harm that might cause.
00:43The Hester spokesperson admitted there are temporary disruptions to some services, but members can still receive urgent and critical payments and switch investments.
00:52When I first reported on the super outage last month, dozens of people wrote into the ABC, distressed they couldn't tap into their super.
01:00When I spoke to Hester, the super fund insisted that I provide the names and contact details for these individuals so the super fund can escalate the claims.
01:09Super funds shouldn't be outsourcing their customer service to media outlets or to consumer organisations.
01:16They should be dealing with this problem themselves.
01:18Daniela Pady's client was in the process of pulling money from his super to buy a property and almost lost his deposit.
01:26She lodged a complaint and enlisted a financial insider to help escalate his claim, which has now been paid, but not without a significant toll.
01:34Because of this upgrade, he's been caught out and he's now having to deal with the emotional and financial burden.
01:42A burden many Hester members are still facing.
01:44A burden many Hester members are still facing.
01:45A burden of the emotional burden of the emotional burden of the emotional burden of the emotional burden of the emotional burden.
