Raiding the pot: how the pandemic has deepened the pensions crisis
The arrival of coronavirus in Australia in March left Marie Piggo struggling to put food on the table.
The 32-year-old hairdresser from Sydney quickly saw two-thirds of her income disappear as customers stayed at home. Worse still, her husband lost his job.
So when the Australian government announced in March it would allow young people like herself to raid their retirement pots to ease financial pressures caused by the coronavirus lockdown, she jumped at the chance.
“We didn’t take too long to decide to take [the maximum] A$10,000 [$6,900] from my superannuation pot,” she says. “We used this to buy a car which we really needed, as my husband fell ill, and I needed to get to work.” Ms Piggo says she has no regrets about withdrawing what amounted to one-third of her total retirement savings.
“It was not ideal but right now our debts, and getting back into work, are a priority,” she says. “I will have to make up the savings later.” While the measure may have helped ease a cash crunch for Ms Piggo, and millions of others around the world, such short-term emergency measures will deepen the retirement savings crisis that is brewing around the world.
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