Patients insist on using super to fund boob jobs

Surgeons are being bombarded with requests from patients wanting to dip into their superannuation for things like breast augmentations.

Cosmetic surgeons are being bombarded with requests from patients wanting to dip into their retirement savings for things like breast augmentations or tummy tucks and say they want the “vague” guidelines for early access tightened.

Australasian College of Cosmetic Surgery and Medicine censor in chief Dr Ron Bezic said there was no doubt surgeries were being frequently performed that did not meet the criteria for early access to superannuation under compassionate grounds.

The experienced cosmetic surgeon said he received weekly requests from patients eager for his support to access their super.

“It almost becomes a bit tiresome saying ‘look, you don’t meet the criteria’ and often they will go off and see someone else and come back with the money approved, so that’s obviously something that definitely needs tightening,” he said.

Dr Ron Bezic. Source: Supplied

The Courier-Mail has found social media posts by plastic surgeons including how-to videos for patients wanting to navigate early release.

Social media is also awash with patients sharing their experiences on how they were able to raid their super fund for cosmetic surgery including posts like: “Has anyone successfully claimed their superannuation for breast augmentation?” and “what about tummy tucks?”.

There is no public data held on the number of cosmetic surgeries performed under the scheme.

“A common thing we hear from patients ‘but my friend was able to do it’, so through word of mouth there is almost this expectation from patients that you will sign the paperwork and we need to change that expectation by improving the guidelines,” Dr Bezic said.

There are some plastic surgeries that do meet the criteria and there is no suggestion from doctors that it should be changed, for example people with very large breasts who are suffering daily pain or patients who have lost an enormous amount of weight and are struggling with excess skin.

“These people can’t access the public system and in those scenarios it’s appropriate, but those instances are relatively rare,” Dr Bezic said.

“But I think the guidelines are very vague which allows the system to be misused.”

The conditions people need to meet to get early access to their super on medical grounds is

to treat a life-threatening illness or injury, to alleviate acute or chronic pain, to alleviate acute or chronic mental illness and treatment must not be readily available through the public system.

Data from the ATO reveals that the most common surgery people are spending on their super is for weight loss surgery with 13,620 people having their application approved last year – totalling $233.9m.

The union representing doctors, Australian Salaried Medical Officers’ Federation president Dr Antony Sara said the union’s position was that people accessing their retirement nest eggs for private sector surgery was not a good idea.

“There are strong arguments that we in the public sector should be doing bariatric surgery on the morbidly obese it reduces costs in the future and increases quality of life,” he said.

“The problem is the hospital system is so strapped that we can’t even get our ordinary surgery done.”

A spokesman for Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the government was “aware of concerns” superannuation may be accessed under hardship provisions for non-essential cosmetic procedures. And he said while early access to super on compassionate grounds due to genuine hardship would continue, the government’s pursuit to legislate the objective of superannuation would “reinforce the principle that its purpose is to support retirement income”.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Taxation Office said accessing super early “is a last resort”.

Although previously shadowing a clampdown on early access, a spokesman for Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the compassionate early release of super program would remain for those with no other means to pay for genuine compassionate expenses.

He did not say if or how the guidelines would change.

Originally published as Patients insist on using super to fund boob jobs