A single person in Rockingham has lost a superannuation account holding more than $1.5 million, figures show, as the tax office tries to reconnect West Australians with hundreds of thousands of forgotten nest eggs.
The ATO has revealed there are 378,000 lost super accounts in the State with $1.7 billion at stake.
Over the past year, thousands of previously lost accounts have been found with $409 million consolidated into active accounts.
But there are still hundreds of thousands outstanding, with the most in Mandurah where almost $44 million is missing.
That was $3.6 million better than in 2016-17 when the tax office drew attention to the large number of missing accounts.
Other lost super hotspots in WA include Coolbellup where there is $38.2 million outstanding, Wangara ($37.3 million) and Success ($35.7 million).
Success residents were successful in finding lost super with a State-best collection of $4.7 million in the past 12 months.
It is a different story for those in central Perth, where the total lost amount rose by $1.3 million over the year to $16.4 million.
Around Brookdale, the lost super increased by $1.2 million to almost $35.4 million, while another $1 million was lost in the Shoalwater area.
Nationally, there is now $17.5 billion in lost super spread across 6.2 million accounts — an improvement of $420 million.
The tax office consolidated more than 530,000 active, lost and unclaimed super accounts worth almost $3.2 billion.
ATO assistant commissioner Graham Whyte said that with more than a third of Australians holding at least two super accounts, there was a chance people had lost track of some of their retirement income.
“It’s important to remain engaged with your super fund through all stages of your career, not just when you are ready to retire,” he said.
“The data also reveals that more than a third of Australians still hold two or more super accounts.”
You can check you super details or track down lost accounts by visiting ato.gov.au/checkyoursuper