Super is designed to provide income for you when you retire—that’s why it’s generally not accessible until you reach age 60. However, you may be able to withdraw your super early in certain circumstances
There are limited situations when you can withdraw some or all of your super prior to age 60:
You can apply to access your super on grounds of severe financial hardship:
If you have received Commonwealth income support payments for at least 26 continuous weeks and you are able to demonstrate financial hardship. Financial hardship means you are unable to meet your reasonable and immediate family living expenses. You need to provide evidence of bills or expenses. One aspect of financial hardship is whether you own assets that could reasonably and realistically be sold to meet your expenses. This will be determined by guidelines issued by Services Australia. We may not release money on hardship grounds if you have more than $50,000 in assets (excluding your home). For this purpose, any assets should be valued at their resale value, not their replacement value. For example, if you sell your car the value is the likely sale price (market value), not the cost to buy a new or similar car.
If you have received Commonwealth income support payments for 39 cumulative weeks since reaching your preservation age and you are not gainfully employed at the time you lodge your application. If you apply under Criterion 1, a maximum of $10,000 gross (less tax) may be released in any 12-month period. Only one payment may be made in any 12 month period. If you apply under Criterion 2, there is no maximum withdrawal amount or limit to the applications you make. Income support payments must be made by Centrelink or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
