Hi,

Has anyone had any experience accessing super for the operation? I have been quoted $14,000 AUD for the surgery and have been told I could possibly access my super, has anyone else accessed their super if so how was the process. I weigh 140.5kg and my BMI is 44.8

26 minutes ago, HarleyS179 said:

Has anyone had any experience accessing super for the operation?

Can I seriously counsel you against accessing your Australian super to pay for your operation?

Seriously, if you take $AUD17000 to $AUD18000 out to cover your op, you will be seriously out of pocket in your retired life.

1. You will drop your balance by the amount you remove.

2. You will pay exit/access fees.

3. Your nest egg will grow for years from a lower base. You will lose, typically three to four and a half times what you access.

- - -

If you can get a bank loan (or credit union loan) over say four or five years, you will VERY LIKELY be affected less.

You can pay back the loan with your lesser grocery bill! (My weekly spend on food and drink is typically $AUD40 to $AUD55 less since surgery three months ago.)

Talk to your union or financial advisor. Often the clinics will have someone urging you access your super as they do NOT CARE about your future retired income and security.

Hi

I weighed up all the options and i ended up accessing my super. My surgery was $21,000 and so far I have gotten back about $6000 from medicare and i put it back into my super.

I got all the forms i needed from my surgeon in the initial consultation (a centrelink form that you and your GP fill out, and a letter from the surgeon and a letter from your GP), you submit these forms online to centrelink and wait for approval, it takes max 28 days (mine took 34). Once i got the letter from them saying approved I sent that to my Super fund and had the money within 4 days, so was all fairly easy for me. Good luck with it all!

On ‎14‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 10:15 PM, Rainbow_Warrior said:

Can I seriously counsel you against accessing your Australian super to pay for your operation?

Seriously, if you take $AUD17000 to $AUD18000 out to cover your op, you will be seriously out of pocket in your retired life.

1. You will drop your balance by the amount you remove.

2. You will pay exit/access fees.

3. Your nest egg will grow for years from a lower base. You will lose, typically three to four and a half times what you access.

- - -

If you can get a bank loan (or credit union loan) over say four or five years, you will VERY LIKELY be affected less.

You can pay back the loan with your lesser grocery bill! (My weekly spend on food and drink is typically $AUD40 to $AUD55 less since surgery three months ago.)

Talk to your union or financial advisor. Often the clinics will have someone urging you access your super as they do NOT CARE about your future retired income and security.

Hey Rainbow_Warrior,

I completely understand where your coming from, although the way I see it is I have been working 3 jobs over the past 5 years doing roughly 100-120 hours a fortnight and all of the work I have done my employer had obviously added to my super. I have friends that have been working in the same field for the same length of time that have $10-$15k less then what I do that is why I wasn't worried about accessing my super.

The other thing I considered was a Loan but I have just purchased a property and I'm the only one working so getting a long when I am in debt already seems like to much to control and more hours I would need to work to pay it off. The other thing is the fact that I Can't access my super until I'm 67 it is ridiculous, I have never liked the way the Government has restricted Super hence why I have purchased 2 properties and will purchase more to use as my retirement so I don't get told when I can access it. If I don't get this done I wont live till 67 anyway.

Thanks for your advice it was much appreciated.

Harley

On ‎15‎/‎01‎/‎2018 at 12:07 PM, Josey27 said:

Hi

I weighed up all the options and i ended up accessing my super. My surgery was $21,000 and so far I have gotten back about $6000 from medicare and i put it back into my super.

I got all the forms i needed from my surgeon in the initial consultation (a centrelink form that you and your GP fill out, and a letter from the surgeon and a letter from your GP), you submit these forms online to centrelink and wait for approval, it takes max 28 days (mine took 34). Once i got the letter from them saying approved I sent that to my Super fund and had the money within 4 days, so was all fairly easy for me. Good luck with it all!

Hey Josey27,

That's great to hear, I was really worried that it would be a struggle to get it approved. I didn't know you could claim some through Medicare? how does that work? what is the process?

I hope your weight loss journey is going great I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Harley

I didn't know we could claim from Medicare? My surgeon said we couldn't! I paid mine with health insurance and about $8,000 from my savings.

I didn’t know either but when I had my first appointment with my surgeon he gave me a breakdown of all the different things you have to pay for when you get your super money and then beside them it has whether there is a Medicare rebate or not, so mine was: Anaesthetist, Pathology, Radiology and Surgical assistant I could claim back.

Hi there,

Does anyone have some insight into the ease (or not!) of accessing your super these days? I have a sleeve back in 2012 and am considering a revision. When I tried to access my super I was denied bc i had 4K in my bank account (to pay daily bills) and the surgery was 5K. They deemed me "capable of saving for the surgery" and refused early release.

Has anyone had success with their application and is happy to share the ins and outs with me?

Thank you!

Sorry Noo, I haven't been through the process, but I was looking the other day at the online centrelink form for early release of super and I couldn't see a field for adding savings or assets, nor does the documentation required specify copies of bank or investment statements. May it is something they follow up with? There is a company that helps with applying for early release of super, their fees seemed a bit exxy, but if they help achieve a good outcome it could be worth it. Feedback on facebook was a bit mixed but overall 4.2/5. Company name was My SuperCare.

Perhaps Noo you may not be so out of pocket with a revision, as you may not be required to do all the aftercare for up to one or two years?

Note that unless preservation age has been reached early release of super in most instances will be taxed at about 22%, so if $10,000 is released, tax will be $2,200 and funds received will be $7,800. So at the end of the day, we won't receive the full cost of the surgery, hospital and doctor fees etc. I am not sure if tax is paid directly by the super fund or if it is captured by the annual tax return process.

I am considering early release of super for the surgery I am proposing (ESG, if deemed a suitable candidate) which is not covered by medicare (thus also not covered by private health insurance).

For anyone in Australia considering early release of super for weight loss surgery, note that there is a government review underway at the moment, if early release of super for these circumstances continue I suspect that the criteria for early release will become a whole lot tougher than it is now.

If all goes well with my consult etc I want to have the ESG in Sept or Oct, but what to go through the application for super release as soon as possible. If I am not successful, my chosen clinic is a member of MiFund and they have interest free plans (application fee and low cost montly fee only) so I will apply for that. To be honest this is possibly better than early release of super, as application fee and monthly fees would be less than the tax payable on release of super, with the added bonus that super remains intact.

My fall back position if not sucessful for early release of super or MiFund is a surgery that is covered by medicare and private health insurance, but I really do want the minimally invasive ESG.

Apologies for the waffle!

Edited April 1, 20188 yr by 2shea

On 20/01/2018 at 7:29 PM, LaLaDee said:

I didn't know we could claim from Medicare? My surgeon said we couldn't! I paid mine with health insurance and about $8,000 from my savings.

It doesn't look like you are from Australia? I think you will find that it is the Australian medicare system that is being discussed in this thread.

You are fortunate, in Australia if a medical procedure doesn't have a medicare item number it is not covered under private healthy insurance either, and people are out of pocket for the entire costs.

I am considering ESG which is not covered by medicare and thus not covered by health insurance and will need to fund the surgery myself or as is discussed here apply for early release of super (retirement funds).