The Sydney suburbs that rushed to withdraw super as soon as they could

People in Sydney’s west and south-west were almost 10 times as likely as residents of the city’s more affluent suburbs to run down their superannuation to get through the COVID pandemic.

Of the 100 parts of the country with the highest super withdrawal rates, 10 were in Sydney’s western suburbs.

The highest access rate was in Bidwill, where two-in-five working age residents tapped their retirement savings. Nearby Mount Druitt (35 per cent), St Marys (34 per cent), Colyton (33 per cent) and Lethbridge Park (37 per cent) also had large numbers of people using their super.

In the south-west, a hotspot of high withdrawal rates started around Cabramatta (32 per cent), Lurnea (33 per cent) and Ashcroft (36 per cent) and ran all the way along the Hume Highway to Sydney’s southernmost suburbs.

There were sharp differences in withdrawal rates across NSW’s regional centres.

In the northern parts of Tamworth, in the state’s north, about 18 per cent of working age residents tapped their super. But in Tamworth’s western urban areas, almost one in three people used their super.

In Dubbo, in the state’s Central West, there were also differences across the city. About 18 per cent of residents in Dubbo’s south used their super but in the city’s west the withdrawal rate was more than 34 per cent.

On the NSW-Victoria border, the eastern parts of Albury had a withdrawal rate of 15 per cent compared with a 22 per cent rate for the city’s northern suburban area of Lavington.

One of the highest withdrawal rates in the state was the Blue Haven area on the Central Coast, where one in three people drew on their superannuation.

The NSW residents least likely to use their super were all in Sydney. The lowest rate, at just 4 per cent and one of the lowest in the country, covered people in the Sydney-Haymarket area. Other low access rates included Pymble, Castle Hill (east) and Lindfield where 6 per cent of working age people used the program.

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