Membership and contribution options
As a Senior Executive Service (SES) member you have a number of membership and contribution options. You can:
- continue your contributory membership
- cease your contributory membership and defer your benefit with SSS for payment at a later date. If you cease your contributory membership you will still be need to pay, as a minimum, your employer's cost of Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions
- cease your contributory membership and rollover your lump sum to a complying superannuation fund, Approved Deposit Fund (ADF) or Retirement Savings Account (RSA) of your choice. If you cease your contributory membership you will still need to pay, as a minimum, your employer's cost of Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contributions.
If you defer your benefit with SSS you will not be eligible to rejoin the scheme as a contributory member at a later date. A deferred benefit is payable from the scheme's early retirement age of 55 (provided you have ceased the employment that gave rise to the deferred benefit), or upon earlier death or total and permanent disability.
You can elect to cease your contributory membership of SSS and defer your benefit or rollover your benefit at any time while you are an SES officer. Additionally, if you cease your contributory membership and elect to defer your benefit, you can rollover your deferred benefit to another complying superannuation fund, ADF or RSA. Pension rights are not retained if you rollover your benefit.
If you elect to defer or rollover your SSS benefit within 12 months of your SES appointment, the salary used to calculate your benefit will be the salary paid prior to your appointment as an SES officer. However, if you have been an SES officer for more than 12 months, your deferred benefit or the amount you can rollover will be calculated on your nominated superable salary.
Calculation of superable salary
You are required to meet your employer's liability for the superannuation benefits you accrue during your SES service from your salary package. This liability is known as the employer oncost and is deducted from your before-tax income. It is in addition to your personal (employee) contributions.
The employer oncost liability is a percentage of your superable salary and is determined in accordance with actuarial advice. Therefore, the actual dollar amount of your oncost liability will depend on your superable salary figure.
The maximum employer oncost percentage payable is 30% of your superable salary.
Further information
STC Fact Sheet 8: Calculation of superable salary and oncost liability and membership options for members of the Chief and Senior Executive Service (SES) has further information including information on:
- nominating superable salary
- employer superannuation liability
- formulas for calculating superable salary and oncost liability
- employer oncost tables
- membership and contribution options
- salary sacrificing personal contributions
- superannuation tax changes from 1 July 2007
There is also further information about your scheme membership in the SES Guidelines on the NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet's website.
If you are a public sector executive who deferred their benefit without ceasing employment, you can elect to have the actuarially calculated transfer value of your deferred benefit rolled over to another superannuation scheme at any time while you remain an executive officer.
From age 55, an application for a deferred pension can be made after you have ceased employment with the public sector employer that gave rise to the deferred benefit. However, you may not be able to receive the preserved component of your pension at that time until you meet one of the Commonwealth Government's conditions of release.