Sweeping new super changes in June? Don’t fall for it

I was on a superannuation fund livestream this week doing a Q&A when a woman asked me what I thought about the major new super rules coming in on June 1.

I did a double-take. She continued – what did I think of the new phased withdrawal limits that would be imposed on people in the pension phase? And the limits to lump sums that we could withdraw?

The lack of appropriate advice for retirees means these sorts of scams will become more and more common.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

“There’s no new super rules coming in on June 1, unless Albo brings parliament back early and passes the $3 million rule,” I said, pretty confident I hadn’t missed anything. The fund’s financial adviser also agreed with me. And I didn’t give it a second thought – until the next day.

That was when I received an email from a lady asking me what I thought about the new super withdrawal rules coming into effect on June 1. She’d forwarded on an article in the email – which I categorically refused to open.

I sent it back to her with the note: “You’ve been scammed. You should never click on a link in an email that you don’t know the source of.”

The scam article doing the rounds currently.

She persevered, sending me screenshots of an article that is clearly doing the rounds online among imminent retirees, driving fear into their souls. Eventually, I opened it on my iPad in incognito mode.

It was slick. It was confidently written. And it was utterly made up.

The article includes a table claiming to list so-called “changes” coming to Australian super rules on June 1, 2025. Among the fake claims is a shift in the preservation age, increasing it from 60 to 70 by 2030.

It also claims that lump-sum withdrawals will be capped at 50 per cent of a person’s balance, rather than being fully accessible as they are now. Another claim is that phased withdrawals in pension phase will become mandatory – something that is already the case under current rules, making the statement clearly incorrect.

The article goes on to mention a so-called “deferred access bonus” of 3 per cent per year up to age 75, which actually applies to age pension systems in the US and UK, not Australia. Finally, it states that early access to super will be subject to tighter eligibility criteria and capped withdrawal amounts.

Right now, the only thing changing on June 1 is the temperature.

Not a single one of these things has been proposed by the Australian government or Treasury. None are in legislation. None are real.

But this kind of misinformation works because it preys on people who are about to make major decisions. It’s not coming from dodgy crypto bros or anonymous text messages.

It’s dressed up to look legitimate, shared in retirement forums, and does the rounds by email. It’s a masterclass in misinformation, and it’s getting traction.

So let’s clear this up right now: there are no new superannuation withdrawal rules coming into effect on June 1. Not for lump sums, not for preservation age, not for pension phase. Nothing. Zip.

Yes, there is a proposed tax on balances above $3 million that the federal government is hoping to legislate, but that has nothing to do with access or withdrawal rules for the vast majority of Australians. The rest? Complete fiction.

But here’s what is real, and it’s the bigger problem.

We’re living in an age of targeted misinformation, especially when it comes to money. Financial scams aren’t just dodgy crypto schemes or fake inheritance emails any more.

They’re disguised as helpful articles, cleverly written to mimic government announcements or expert commentary. They circulate rapidly in Facebook groups, email chains and chat threads filled with retirees trying to make sense of their finances.

And they work – because retirement is a vulnerable life stage. When the rules are complex, the stakes are high, and the systems confusing, fear spreads fast.

All it takes is a convincing-looking article, and suddenly people are questioning whether they’ll lose access to their super, whether they’ve missed a major policy change, or whether they need to act fast to “lock in” their rights.

This isn’t just a scam problem – it’s a system problem. We’ve made superannuation so complex that many people can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. We’ve created an advice environment where Australians are either lured in before they understand what they’re paying for, or priced out entirely. And they’re scared.

Too many ordinary Australians are left to navigate retirement on their own, relying on Google searches, fund call centres, or the loudest voice in the Facebook group.

We need clearer, more consistent communication from regulators. We need stronger myth-busting from funds. And most of all, we need to help Australians build the confidence to understand their retirement system, so they’re less vulnerable to fear, confusion and fraud.

Because right now? The only thing changing on June 1 is the temperature.

Bec Wilson is the author of the bestseller, How to Have an Epic Retirement, and the newly released Prime Time: 27 lessons for the new midlife. She writes a weekly newsletter at epicretirement.net and hosts the Prime Time podcast.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making financial decisions.

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