With Payday Super set to commence on 1 July, parliament has passed the Supporting Super Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures Bill 2025. The rationale for the bill is to strengthen super stapling, helping workers make informed decisions about their super fund choices during onboarding. It also gives employers more time to prepare their systems for Payday Super requirements.
What is Super Stapling?
โSuper Staplingโ is where an employeeโs nominated super fund follows them throughout their working career. During onboarding, if the new employee doesnโt choose a super fund, the employer can request the stapled fund from the ATO.
The intent of stapled funds is to prevent new superannuation funds from being opened every time the employee starts a new job.
What does the new reform do?
The reforms tighten up super stapling by:
- Limiting the super funds that employers can actively present or promote during onboarding to:
- An employeeโs stapled fund
- The employerโs default fund
- MySuper products that meet certain conditions
- Give employers or their agents the ability to request stapled fund details from the ATO earlier in the onboarding process.
How does this help?
While stapling has helped attach nominated super funds to workers, there is still confusion during onboarding. The problem is that new employees don’t clearly understand their super fund โ the one already ‘stapled’ to them โ and the super products presented to them by their employer during onboarding.
What this bill does to help is give workers an understanding of:
- Their own fund.
- The fund their new employer is offering.
This reduces confusion, giving employees a clear and informed choice about their super, helping reduce fund switching and duplication.
What does this mean for employers?
The change that this reform helps employers with is the early request of new employeesโ super funds from the ATO. This helps businesses prepare their payroll system for new employees and reduces onboarding time. This is especially helpful for the upcoming Payday Super requirements, which require employers to pay employees their superannuation at the same time as salary and wages.
Part of the Payday Super rules is that you have a 7 business-day deadline to pay superannuation into an employee’s designated super fund (20 business days for new employees).
If you miss, underpay, pay late, or pay into the wrong super fund, your business is subject to the superannuation guarantee charge (SGC)
The SGC is a fine from the ATO calculated on a missing, late, or underpaid superannuation contribution. Another part of the fine is whether the business followed Super Choice rules. Paying the wrong super fund for an employee breaches that condition. This can trigger a 25% choice loading on affected contributions, capped at $1200, in addition to other SGC penalties under Payday Super.
By receiving your employees’ super fund details earlier in the onboarding process, you reduce your risk of paying into the wrong super account and complying with the Payday Super rules.
Payday Super for small businesses
The added support created by the Supporting Super Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures Bill 2025 will help businesses and workers choose the right super fund at the get-go. Make sure your business is Payday Super ready with our checklist so you’re compliant come 1 July.
