How changes in your salary or service could affect your benefit

If you are expecting changes to your WA public sector service or salary, it’s important to know that these changes could have a big impact on your Gold State Super benefit.

Gold State Super is a defined benefit scheme. The formula we use to work out your benefit takes into account your Average Contribution Rate, Final Remuneration, and Completed Months of Service. If any of these factors change, your benefit will also change.

Depending on your situation, you may be able to take advantage of some of the unique features of your account to help protect your benefit and entitlements.

You could protect your salary with salary maintenance

Your Gold State Super Final Benefit is based on your Gold State Super remuneration. If you accept a lower paid position, or if you lose allowances in your current position or by taking a new position, your benefit would be reduced.

If this happens, you may be able to maintain your higher remuneration through salary maintenance.

Salary maintenance allows you to preserve the value of the benefit that you have already accrued - and could help protect the way you accrue benefits in the future. It’s important to know that you can only preserve benefits that are considered part of your Gold State Super remuneration.

Learn more about how salary maintenance works and what is included in Gold State Super remuneration.

When you work part time, your benefit grows at a slower rate

Your Gold State Super continues to grow while you work part time, but your benefit will accrue at a slower rate.

Your Gold State Super service is calculated according to the hours you actually work. Here’s an example in the table below.

When you work part-time, your contributions will be based on your part-time salary. For example, if your standard full-time salary was $50,000 and you start working 50% of the normal full-time hours and are paid $25,000 per year, the contributions you pay would be based on $25,000. This means your contributions would be reduced.

The insured component of your benefit will also be lower than if you were working full time, because your service is based on your current part-time working arrangements.

Your Final Remuneration is based on your equivalent full-time salary, regardless of whether you are working part time or full time.

Read more information and examples of how working part time affects your Gold State Super.

Taking unpaid leave could impact your super and insurance

At some point in your working career, you may need to take unpaid leave.

If you take unpaid leave for less than three months, it won’t affect your Gold State Super membership. In this case, your employer doesn’t need to inform us, but you will need to make contributions during your unpaid leave.

If your unpaid leave is for three months or more, your employer needs to let us know in writing. Your Gold State Super entitlements may be affected.

Here’s a summary of how unpaid leave is treated for Gold State Super purposes.

Learn more about How unpaid leave affects your Gold State Super.

Know your options if you leave the WA public sector

Even if you don’t stay in the WA public sector until you retire, you can still take advantage of the unique benefits of Gold State Super.

If you resign or your position is made redundant from the WA public sector, you will keep the total benefit built up on your behalf.

Your entitlement and benefit options will depend on your age:

• If you are under 55 years - your benefit will be ‘preserved’ or held in Gold State Super until you reach age 55¹ and you are eligible to access your super
• If you are 55 years or over - this is treated as normal retirement and have access to your benefit in full

Important: the way tax is calculated on your super depends on the Commonwealth preservation age². If you are considering accessing your benefit before your Commonwealth preservation age, please read the Tax and super brochure or call us on 13 43 72 to find out how this will affect you.

If you resign or your role is made redundant from the WA public sector, your insurance cover for Death and Total and Permanent Disablement will end. If you want to replace this, you will need to arrange your own insurance cover.

Read more important information on resigning from the WA public sector and redundancy and your super.

Use our Gold State Super calculator

Our Gold State Super calculator allows you to work out how much you could have in your account by the time you retire. You can change details such as your Completed Months of Service, Average Contribution Rate, and Final Remuneration, to see the impact on your final super benefit.

1 Important: if you are under 55 and transferred from the WA Public Sector Pension Scheme, you can choose to receive the Transferred Contributions and Interest component of your benefit when you resign or if you are made redundant. There are tax implications if you choose to receive the Transferred Contributions and Interest component of your benefit as cash before you have reached your Commonwealth preservation age. All other funds must be preserved in Gold State Super until you reach 55 years of age.
2 Your Commonwealth preservation age is dependent on your date of birth. For more information on your Commonwealth preservation age, read the Accessing your super brochure.