Australians withdrew more than $1.4bn from their superannuation accounts for compassionate reasons in the last financial year, with much of that used to fund medical procedures ranging from dental work to weight loss treatments.
Of the 112,400 applications in 2024-25 for compassionate super access, 93,500 were made on medical grounds, up from 71,900 the year prior. There was a particularly sharp rise in applications to use superannuation to fund dental services, with the number doubling in two years to 32,875 requests.
To be approved, medical services need to be certified by two practitioners and need to be deemed medically necessary to alleviate acute or chronic pain, to treat a life-threatening illness or injury, or to alleviate acute or chronic mental illness.
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But the chief executive officer of the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), Justin Untersteiner, said “some businesses and practitioners are taking advantage of this process to push overly expensive or unnecessary treatments”.
“There is an inherent trust that the community places in their practitioners and taking advantage of people in need is never acceptable,” he said. “Any advice on what procedure is necessary should be based on the patients’ best interest and not influenced by financial gain or incentives.”
The deputy commissioner of the ATO, Emma Rosenzweig, said health practitioners and registered agents were inappropriately helping people to access superannuation for cosmetic procedures in particular, which did not meet compassionate release requirements.
“I want to make it clear, compassionate release of super should only be considered as a last resort, where all other options of paying for the eligible expenses have been exhausted,” she said.
Ahpra and the Dental and Medical Boards of Australia on Thursday released guidance for doctors and dentists in response to ongoing concerns of inappropriate conduct around encouraging people to access superannuation.
It includes a warning for practitioners that providing financial advice without a licence could result in severe penalties from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission.
“We are seeing practitioners making inaccurate statements in medical reports,” Rosenzweig said.
“The ATO relies on medical and dental professionals to act in the best interests of their patients to prepare accurate reports regarding their diagnoses and the required treatment strategy.”
Regulatory action to date has ranged from cautions and conditions to referral to a tribunal.
Other penalties apply to individuals, health practitioners or registered agents who help to prepare or submit an application for health treatments that are not necessary, as this would be considered making a false or misleading statement to the ATO Commissioner.
The “medical” category for compassionate superannuation release includes dental, IVF and weight loss treatment. There were 13,255 approved requests for weight loss treatments in 2024-25.
Guardian Australia previously reported that some businesses were offering patients “simple” access to their superannuation to pay for treatments through online advertisements, drawing concern from consumer health groups.
