How to cease a member

Retiring from the workforce

What does this mean?

An employee who is retiring from the workforce has reached an age where they no longer want or need to work. They might be able to claim their super if they’ve met their super fund’s requirements.

What you need to do

For CSS and PSS members

• Encourage your employee to get an estimate of their super benefits from us.
  • If they’re retiring in more than 12 months’ time, they should use the iEstimator tool in the Member Services Online portal.
  • If they’re retiring in less than 12 months’ time, they should call us on 1300 000 277 (CSS) or 1300 000 377 (PSS) to get an estimate.
• Review your employee’s super record as soon as possible. You can access member data reports in our Employer Services Online portal at any time. If changes need to be made to your employee’s record, email employer.service@csc.gov.au as soon as you can.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.
• Complete a departmental report and submit it to us.

For PSSap members

• Encourage your employee to review their super balance in the Member Services Online portal and talk to us about how and when they can claim their benefit. They can also explore our CSC retirement income stream (CSCri) which provides a flexible way to access super when they retire.

• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file. There’s no departmental report required for PSSap members.

Support for your retiring employees

Your employee can join our 3rd Act Community to access resources, information and stories to help them move into retirement.

There’s plenty of other resources to help your employee understand their super in the Retirement section of our website.

Moving to another participating employer

What does this mean?

Moving to another participating employer means that your employee is moving to an employer who is able to contribute to our CSC super funds with little or no restrictions. 

What you need to do

For CSS and PSS members

• Review your employee’s super record as soon as possible. You can access member data reports in our Employer Services Online portal at any time. If changes need to be made to your employee’s record, email employer.service@csc.gov.au as soon as you can.
• Prepare and provide a super history to your employee’s new employer so that they can start paying the correct super as soon as your employee has moved.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.

There’s no need to submit a departmental report for CSS or PSS members moving to another participating employer through the continuous service rules. If there’s a break in service that means the continuous service rules don’t apply, you will need to complete a departmental report and submit it to us.

For PSSap members

• Provide a super history to your employee’s new employer so that they can figure out what super they might need to pay to your employee when they move. This will depend on whether your employee’s new employer calculates PSSap super salaries using the fortnightly contribution salary (FCS) method or ordinary time earnings (OTE). See Super salary.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.

There’s no departmental report required for PSSap members.

Moving to non-government employment

What does this mean?

Your employee has chosen to leave government employment which means they may face some restrictions if they want to keep contributing to a CSC super fund.

Your employee might be able to keep contributing to a CSC super fund

It’s possible for some of your employees to continue contributing to a CSC super fund when they move to employment outside of the government.

• For CSS and PSS members – they’re unable to contribute to their CSS or PSS account, but they may be able to open a PSSap Ancillary account and contribute to that instead. Learn more about PSSap Ancillary memberships.
• For PSSap members – once a PSSap member has completed at least 12 continuous months of eligible employment, their PSSap account can receive any type of contribution which means their fund would be ‘stapled’ to them when they change employers.     

What you need to do

For CSS and PSS members

• Let your employee know about PSSap Ancillary accounts and send them to our website.
• Review your employee’s super record as soon as possible. You can access member data reports in our Employer Services Online portal at any time. If changes need to be made to your employee’s record, email employer.service@csc.gov.au as soon as you can.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.
• Complete a departmental report and submit it to us.

For PSSap members

• Let your employee know that they might be able to take their PSSap account with them and send them to our website.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.

There’s no departmental report required for PSSap members.

Medically retiring from the workforce

What does this mean?

An employee who is medically retiring from the workforce has either:

• had an invalidity retirement certificate (IRC) issued by CSC to enable their medical retirement, or
• reached the age limit for an IRC (which means we cannot issue an IRC) and you have decided to medically terminate their employment.

Learn more about IRCs and age limits

What you need to do

For CSS and PSS members

• Review your employee’s super record as soon as possible. You can access member data reports in our Employer Services Online portal at any time. If changes need to be made to your employee’s record, email employer.service@csc.gov.au as soon as you can.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.
• Complete an invalidity departmental report and submit it to us.

For PSSap members

You need to submit your employee’s exit date and reason* in your next contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file. There’s no departmental report to complete for PSSap members.

Opting out of a CSC super fund

What does this mean?

Your employee has chosen to stop contributing to a CSC super fund and as a result they’re opting out of that fund.

There are strict rules that your employees must follow when wanting to leave CSS or PSS

For CSS members

• For APS employers – your employee must enter into an employment arrangement that means they’re no longer eligible to contribute to CSS. For example, if a full-time permanent employee becomes a part-time temporary employee, they’ll need to choose another super fund to contribute to because part-time temporary employment is not an eligible employment status for CSS.
• For non-APS employers – your employee can:

• choose to join an employer-sponsored super fund but you must pay more than the minimum Super Guarantee (SG) amount into that super fund, or
• enter into an employment arrangement that means they’re no longer eligible to contribute to CSS. See the above example under APS employers.

For PSS members

Generally speaking, permanent employees contributing to PSS can’t ask for their employer contributions to be paid to another super fund. This is usually only possible if they elect to permanently cease their PSS membership, that is, they ‘opt out’ of PSS.

If an employee wants to opt out of PSS, they must be aware of and understand the implications of this decision. Opting out means they can’t contribute to PSS ever again, even if they have multiple memberships or change their mind. We recommend the employee seek financial advice when exploring this option. More information on ‘opting out’ of PSS can be found in the ceasing PSS membership factsheet.

If an employee does want to opt out of PSS and is fully aware of the implications, they must complete the election to cease membership form. The election to opt out can’t take effect until this form has been completed. We can’t accept an email or completed standard super choice form. This form also means the election to opt out can’t be backdated.

If by opting out of PSS your employee would be eligible for an ordinary employer-sponsored PSSap membership, they must join PSSap. However, they’ll then have choice of fund and can choose another super fund as soon as they’d like.If they aren’t eligible for PSSap, they must elect another super fund straight away.

If your employee has questions about opting out of PSS, they should reach out to us on 1300 000 377.

PSSap members just need to choose a new super fund and let you know

Employees in PSSap simply need to choose a new super fund and let you know. You may ask them to complete specific forms to provide you with this information – that’s entirely up to you.

What you need to do

For CSS and PSS members

• Review your employee’s super record as soon as possible. You can access member data reports in our Employer Services Online portal at any time. If changes need to be made to your employee’s record, email employer.service@csc.gov.au as soon as you can.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.
• Complete a departmental report and submit it to us.

For PSSap members

There’s nothing you need to do for PSSap members who are opting out. However, you should encourage your employees to tell you if they change their super fund. If you send us a contribution for an employee who has left PSSap, we’ll send that contribution back to you – we can’t accept contributions into the fund for members who have exited and rolled over or claimed their benefit.

Leaving employment

We encourage you to find out why your employee is leaving employment and where they’re going if possible – there’s different actions you need to take depending on their situation.

If you do know why they’re leaving and where they’re going, find the scenario on this page that best fits your employee’s situation and have a read of what you need to do for that scenario.

What you need to do

For CSS and PSS members

• Review your employee’s super record as soon as possible. You can access member data reports in our online portal at any time. If changes need to be made to your employee’s record, email employer.service@csc.gov.au as soon as you can.
• Put your employee’s exit date and reason* (if known) in an upcoming contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file.
• Complete a departmental report and submit it to us.

For PSSap members

You need to submit your employee’s exit date and reason* in your next contribution file – that information will flow through to our system when you submit that file. There’s no departmental report to complete for PSSap members.

*Look at our SAFF and SAFFE data requirements for the reason codes you need to use in your contribution file.