Submitted Successfully!
To reward your contribution, here is a gift for you: A free trial for our video production service.
Thank you for your contribution! You can also upload a video entry or images related to this topic.
Version Summary Created by Modification Content Size Created at Operation
1 -- 3603 2023-11-24 12:51:06 |
2 format correct Meta information modification 3603 2023-11-27 01:45:50 |

Video Upload Options

Do you have a full video?

Confirm

Are you sure to Delete?
Cite
If you have any further questions, please contact Encyclopedia Editorial Office.
Mapa Mudiyanselage, C.; Perera, P.; Grandhi, S. Blockchain-Based Model for the Prevention of Superannuation Fraud. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/52035 (accessed on 04 July 2024).
Mapa Mudiyanselage C, Perera P, Grandhi S. Blockchain-Based Model for the Prevention of Superannuation Fraud. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/52035. Accessed July 04, 2024.
Mapa Mudiyanselage, Chalani, Pethigamage Perera, Sriamannarayana Grandhi. "Blockchain-Based Model for the Prevention of Superannuation Fraud" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/52035 (accessed July 04, 2024).
Mapa Mudiyanselage, C., Perera, P., & Grandhi, S. (2023, November 24). Blockchain-Based Model for the Prevention of Superannuation Fraud. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/52035
Mapa Mudiyanselage, Chalani, et al. "Blockchain-Based Model for the Prevention of Superannuation Fraud." Encyclopedia. Web. 24 November, 2023.
Blockchain-Based Model for the Prevention of Superannuation Fraud
Edit

Superannuation is the fund set aside by employers to provide their employees with a dignified retirement. The issues can arise with retirement funds from employers, such as failure to make required contributions to an employee’s superannuation fund, incorrect payments, or debiting the wrong fund, contrary to legal or contractual obligations. Blockchain technology has gained popularity because of its ability to improve security and prevent fraud across many sectors, including finance.

blockchain superannuation super funds smart contracts

1. Introduction

Australian superannuation is a retirement savings system that is mandated by the Australian government [1]. It requires employers to make contributions to a superannuation fund on behalf of their employees, which are then invested in various assets to grow over time. The purpose of the superannuation system is to provide retirement income for Australians, in addition to the government-provided age pension. Employees can also make voluntary contributions to their superannuation fund, and the government provides tax incentives to encourage people to save more for retirement. Superannuation funds in Australia are regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) [2]. When individuals reach retirement age, they can withdraw their superannuation savings as a lump sum or as a regular income stream.
According to Commonwealth Australia (2023), more than 75 percent of Australians have accounts with superannuation companies to manage their employer contributions. Over the years it has grown from AUD 148 billion to AUD 3.3 trillion, and represents 139.6 percent of the national GDP [3]. According to APRA [4], at the end of March 2023, superannuation assets amounted to over AUD 3.5 trillion, an increase in value of 3.2% from the December 2022 quarter. Employer contributions were AUD 30.2 billion for the quarter and AUD 118.6 billion for the entire year that ended in March 2023, representing increases of 12.6% from the fiscal year which ended in March 2022. This is partly because of the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) rate increase to 10.5% as of 1 July 2022, along with the positive trends in the labor market for the year. Around three-thirds of employer contributions for the four quarters up to March 2023 came from SG contributions (AUD 91.8 billion), and this percentage is anticipated to rise in line with future SG increases [4].
Kleinberg [5] analyses the Australian superannuation system from the standpoint of human rights, aiming to contribute to the debate on superannuation by examining not only whether the current superannuation policy is sufficient to meet Australia’s human rights commitments under the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in relation to the provision of retirement income, but also whether the government’s approach, associated with the governance of the superannuation industry and its management of retirement funds, is satisfactory [5].
Similar to Australia’s superannuation system, most countries have retirement funds in place to support their working class and offer financial stability. For example, in Europe, there are several retirement savings options such as pension funds, individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and annuities. In Asia, mandatory provident funds (MPFs), national pension systems and private pension plans are part of retirement savings. Whereas, in the United States, there are several retirement savings options available, including 401(k) plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and social security.
In Australia, the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) was implemented at a rate of 3% in place of a pay raise and as a method of increasing retirement savings in 1992. It has now become a legal matter [6]. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) provides the most up-to-date information on superannuation, and it shows that as of 1 July 2022, the SG rate is 10.5% of employees’ wages, and employers are required to pay this amount to employees’ super funds at least once in every quarter [7]. By July 2025, the employer contribution mandated by law will have increased to 12% of income [8]. When making payments, small businesses are able to pay superannuation through the Small Business Superannuation Clearing House (SBSCH), which is a free service provided by the Australian federal government through the ATO [9].
There have been many cases of outstanding super contributions in recent years, and this has been a contentious issue among the Australian government and industry experts. For instance, Helen [10] explains that some employees’ superannuation amounts on their pay slips are different from the amounts on their super funds. The reason for this is superannuation being underpaid or unpaid by employers. Some employers use the phoenix method, which refers to “the deliberate, systematic liquidation of a company in order to avoid the settlement of liabilities, such as salaries, superannuation, overdue taxes, and business creditors”. The business then “rises from the ashes”, carrying on the same operations, free of any obligations, under a different or related name [11]. Table 1, presented below, highlights the unpaid superannuation from 2013 to 2022 due to the existing method of super contributions.
Table 1. Unpaid superannuation data.
Source Financial Year Unpaid Superannuation
Industry Super Australia 2013–2014 AUD 3.6 billion [12]
Industry Super Australia 2015–2016 AUD 3.9 billion [13]
Industry Super Australia 2016–2017 AUD 5.9 billion [6]
Industry Super Australia 2017–2018 AUD 5.9 billion [14]
Federal Government 2018–2019 AUD 5 billion [15]
Industry Super Australia 2019–2020 AUD 5 billion [15]
Australian National Audit Office 2020–2021 AUD 881 million [16]
Australian Taxation Office 2021–2022 AUD 1 billion [17]

References

  1. Australian Taxation Office. Your Superannuation Basics. Australian Government, 10 June 2022. Available online: https://www.ato.gov.au/general/other-languages/in-detail/information-in-other-languages/your-superannuation-basics/#Whatissuperannuation1 (accessed on 15 February 2023).
  2. Australian Securities & Investments Commission. The ASIC—APRA Relationship. 15 December 2021. Available online: https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/what-we-do/our-role/other-regulators-and-organisations/the-asic-apra-relationship/#:~:text=ASIC%20regulates%20t (accessed on 27 February 2023).
  3. The Treasury. Legislating the Objective of Superannuation; Australian Government: Canberra, Australia, 2023.
  4. Australian Prudential Regulation Authority. Quarterly Superannuation Performance Statistics Highlights March 2023; APRA: Sydney, Australia, 2023.
  5. Klineberg. Superannuation and economic security for older Australians: A human rights perspective. Aust. J. Hum. Rights 2020, 26, 405–427.
  6. Industry Super Australa. Super Scandal: Unpaid Super Guarantee in 2016–2017; Industry Super Australia: Melbourne, Australia, 2019.
  7. Australian Taxation Office. Superannuation Guarantee. Australian Government, 2023. Available online: https://www.ato.gov.au/rates/key-superannuation-rates-and-thresholds/?page=23#Super_guarantee_percentage (accessed on 5 February 2023).
  8. Necmi, E.Z.; Avkiran, K. Complexity and Uncertainty regarding Superannuation Do Not Explain Key Decisions Taken by Members. Sci. Res. 2018, 8, 11.
  9. Australian Taxation Office. How to Pay Super, Australian Government. 26 May 2021. Available online: https://www.ato.gov.au/business/super-for-employers/paying-super-contributions/how-to-pay-super/ (accessed on 2 February 2023).
  10. Anderson, H. Detecting Unpaid Superannuation. Aust. Restruct. Insolv. Turnaround Assoc. J. 2017, 29, 34.
  11. Giardina; Pinto, D. A proposal to address the impact of fraudulent phoenix activities on unremitted superannuation guarantee contributions in Australia. J. Aust. Tax. 2014, 16, 74–107.
  12. Senate Economics References Committee. Superbad—Wage Theft and Non-Compliance of the Superannuation; The Senate Printing Unit, Parliament House: Canberra, Australia, 2017.
  13. Industry Super Australia. Unpaid Super: Getting Worse While Nothing Is Done; Industry Fund Services Ltd.: Melbourne, Australia, 2016.
  14. Industry Super Australia. Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. 24 October 2019. Available online: https://www.dewr.gov.au/system/files/documents/submission-file/2022-07/industry-super-australia-submission.pdf (accessed on 19 June 2023).
  15. McMahon, T. Super Scandalous: How to Fix the $5 Billion Scourge of Unpaid Super; Industry Super Australia: Melbourne, Australia, 2021.
  16. Australian National Audit Office. Addressing Superannuation Guarantee Non-Compliance. 28 April 2022. Available online: https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/addressing-superannuation-guarantee-non-compliance (accessed on 22 July 2023).
  17. Australian Taxation Office. Commissioner of Taxation Annual Report 2021–2022; Australian Government: Barton, Australia, 2022.
  18. Taylor, M. Help Us Pursue Employer Laggards Says Cbus; Super Review: Chatswood, Australia, 2017.
  19. Australian Taxation Ofiice. Single Touch Payroll. Australian Government, 10 November 2021. Available online: https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/Single-Touch-Payroll/ (accessed on 12 February 2023).
  20. Pagura. Single Touch: What you need to know. J. Aust. Tradit. Med. Soc. 2019, 25, 226–227.
  21. Taylor, M. Govt must Go further on Unpaid Super; Super Review: Chatswood, Australia, 2018.
  22. Taylor, M. ASFA Urges Monthly SG Payments; Super Review: Chatswood, Australia, 2017.
  23. William-Smith, H. AustralianSuper App to Alert Members to Unpaid Super; Super Review: Chatswood, Australia, 2017.
  24. Proebstl. Government acts to make sure your super gets paid. Bull. (Law Soc. South Aust.) 2018, 40, 43.
  25. Australian Parliament House. 1 March 2019. Available online: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_LEGislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r6098 (accessed on 5 February 2023).
  26. Autralian Taxation Office. ATO: Proof and voting entitlements for SGC, request for documents. Aust. Restruct. Insolv. Turnaround Assoc. J. 2018, 30, 42.
  27. Anderson, H.; Hardy, T. Superannuation guarantee contributions as a tax: The case for reincarnation over reform. Aust. Tax Forum 2018, 33, 497–532.
  28. Taylor, M. IPA Says SG Penalty Regime Too Harsh; Super Review: Chatswood, Australia, 2017.
  29. Ainsworth, R.T.; Viitasaari, V. Payroll Tax & The Blockchain. Boston Univ. Sch. Law Law Econ. Pap. 2017, 17. Available online: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2970699 (accessed on 26 June 2023).
  30. Potdar, V.; Allen, C. Blockchain to the Rescue: Improving Taxpayer Engagement with Blockchain. Aust. Tax Rev. 2022, 50, 211–220.
  31. van der Schans, M.; Cramwinckel, J.; Ivanov, S. Nudge: Improving decisions about pensions using blockchain technology. Vba J. 2018, 134, 13–17.
  32. Sarker, I.; Datta, B. Re-designing the pension business processes for achieving technology-driven reforms through blockchain adoption: A proposed architecture. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 2022, 174, 121059.
  33. Nofer, M.; Gomber, P.; Hinz, O.; Schiereck, D. Blockchain. Bus. Inf. Syst. Eng. 2017, 59, 183–187.
  34. Vecchiato, R. Disruptive innovation, managerial cognition, and technology competition outcomes. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 2017, 116, 116–128.
  35. Hill, B.; Chopra, S.; Valencourt, P. Blockchain Quick Reference: A Guide to Exploring Decentralized Blockchain Application Development; Packt Publishing: Birmingham, UK, 2018.
  36. Douaihy, M. Blockchain. Twice 2018, 33, 14–15.
  37. Kube, N. Daniel Drescher: Blockchain basics: A non-technical introduction in 25 steps. Financ. Mark. Portf. Manag. 2017, 32, 329–331.
  38. Smith, C.; Kumar, A. Crypto currencies—An introduction to not-so-funny moneys. J. Econ. Surv. 2018, 32, 1531–1559.
  39. Baset, S. Hands-On Blockchain with Hyperledger: Building Decentralized Applications with Hyperledger Fabric and Composer; Packt Publishing Limited: Birmingham, UK, 2018.
  40. Monrat, A.; Schelen, O.; Andersson, K. A Survey of Blockchain from the Perspectives of Applications, Chfromnges, and Opportunities. IEEE Access 2019, 7, 117134–117151.
  41. Crosby, M.; Pattanayak, P.N.; Verma, S.; Kalyanaraman, V. Blockchain technology: Beyond bitcoin. Appl. Innov. Rev. 2016, 2, 19–26.
  42. Lin, Q.; Chang, P.; Chen, G.; Ooi, B.C.; Tan, K.; Wang, Z. Towards a non-2PC transaction management in distributed database systems. Proc. ACM Int. Conf. Manag. Data 2016, 1659–1674.
  43. Nakamoto, S. Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Decentralized Bus. Rev. 2017. Available online: https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (accessed on 26 June 2023).
  44. Ripple. Move Money to All Corners of the World. 2017. Available online: https://ripple.com/ (accessed on 18 September 2021).
  45. Sachs, G. Blockchain: Putting Theory into Practice. 2016. Available online: www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/pages/blockchain/ (accessed on 19 September 2021).
  46. Baker, P. Today’s Blockchain Use Cases and Industry Applications. 1 June 2021. Available online: https://searchcio.techtarget.com/feature/Todays-blockchain-use-cases-and-industry-applications (accessed on 15 September 2021).
  47. Jones, S. Making Crypto Safer for Consumers; Ministers Treasury Portfolio: London, UK, 2023.
  48. Rupareliya, K. How Smart Contracts are Transforming Banks and Financial Institutions. 8 July 2021. Available online: https://www.businessofapps.com/insights/how-smart-contracts-are-transforming-banks-and-financial-institutions/ (accessed on 31 January 2023).
More
Information
Contributors MDPI registered users' name will be linked to their SciProfiles pages. To register with us, please refer to https://encyclopedia.pub/register : , ,
View Times: 254
Revisions: 2 times (View History)
Update Date: 27 Nov 2023
1000/1000
Video Production Service