Advice for your ESSSuper Transport Scheme benefit.

Employees of a transport authority as defined by the Transport Superannuation Act 1988, plus members who transferred in from the Revised Scheme, the SERB Scheme and the Metropolitan Transit Authority Scheme. The scheme was established in 1988 and has been closed to new members since 31 December 1993, per the ESSSuper Transport Scheme Handbook issued 1 July 2026.

Because the industry was restructured more than once, many records here carry more than one period of membership. If you moved between operators, it’s worth confirming what the scheme actually holds for you rather than assuming it’s one continuous run.

Your age retirement benefit is a lump sum based on your Final Average Salary, your personal contribution rate and your recognised service. For service after 1 July 1993 the accrual rate is 8.5% of final average salary a year at nil contributions, 13% at 2.5%, 17.5% at 5% and 22% at 7.5% from after-tax salary.

Think of the accrual rate as the slice of salary you earn for each year you contribute at that rate. The before-tax equivalents are 3%, 5.9% and 8.9%, slightly higher because they carry the 15% contributions tax. For service before 1 July 1993 the matching accrual rates are 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%. At exit, ESSSuper also compares that formula with a Minimum Requisite Benefit — a legislated floor designed to broadly match what Superannuation Guarantee contributions would have built in an ordinary account — and you receive whichever amount is higher. Your own figures sit on your ESSSuper statement and in the Transport Scheme Handbook of 1 July 2026.

Your minimum retirement age is 55, so yes — retire at or after 55 and you receive the age retirement benefit. If you transferred in from the SERB Scheme, 55 is also the point from which you can convert up to 50% of your lump sum back into a fortnightly indexed pension.

Leave before 55 and the arithmetic changes. You get a refund of contributions and earnings plus a deferred benefit payable at 55, or you can convert that deferred benefit to a present-day value lump sum straight away, discounted by 4% a year compounded for each year you’re short. Preservation age is a separate federal rule, and it is 60 for anyone born after 30 June 1964, so finishing at 55 doesn’t necessarily mean the whole benefit is in your hands at 55.

Three times per calendar year. If ESSSuper receives your election by the 14th of the month, the new rate starts from the beginning of the next month; after the 14th, it waits until the month after that.

Changing the type of contribution — from after-tax to before-tax salary sacrifice — can be done at any time. ESSSuper describes the 7.5% after-tax rung as available only in certain limited cases, in the Transport Scheme Handbook issued 1 July 2026.

Only in one ordinary situation. If you transferred in from the SERB Scheme, then at age retirement or on exempting out over 65 you can convert up to 50% of your lump sum back into a fortnightly indexed pension. That conversion isn’t available if you resign or are retrenched before your minimum retirement age.

Otherwise the Transport Scheme pays a lump sum. Disability is a separate exception — a disability retirement can be paid as an indexed fortnightly pension for life if you cease employment before 60. Your statement is where any transfer history will show.

You receive an immediate refund of your contributions and earnings, some of which will be preserved, plus a deferred benefit payable at 55. You can instead convert the deferred benefit to a present-day value lump sum before 55, but under 55 that lump sum is discounted by 4% a year, compounded for each year you’re under.

Think of that 4% as the price of taking it early. The present-day value must be rolled over to a complying fund — ESSSuper’s Accumulation Plan can accept it — and once you take it, no further benefits are payable to you or your partner.

Because your salary for contribution purposes is adjusted on the first pay day in September, based on your highest superable salary up to 1 September that year. A pay rise landing after 1 September doesn’t show up in your contributions until the following year. If you’re planning a finishing date, it’s a detail worth putting on the calendar.

Your retrenchment benefit is only paid once ESSSuper has written certification from your employer — signed by the CEO, General Manager, HR Manager or equivalent — that you’ve been retrenched. That payment is separate from any severance your employer pays.

If you’re retrenched before your minimum retirement age of 55, the payment comes in two parts: an immediate cash lump sum, and a preserved component that must be rolled over to a complying fund. There are no further scheme benefits after a retrenchment benefit has been paid. Retrenched after 55, and the benefit is the same as the age retirement benefit. Those rules are in the 1 July 2026 Transport Scheme Handbook.

If you die in service and you have eligible dependants, the death benefit is a lump sum: the retirement benefit you’ve already built, plus a prospective slice for the years between your date of death and age 60, accrued at the 5% contribution rate. If you die after 60 but before retirement, ESSSuper apportions the accrued retirement benefit between your dependants or your estate.

Eligible dependants include a spouse, a domestic partner, children of any age, and anyone the Board accepts was wholly or partly dependent on you. You can lodge a binding or non-binding nomination in Members Online. A binding nomination lasts three years and must be renewed, or it becomes non-binding. Death-benefit rules are set out in the handbook issued 1 July 2026.

Your fortnightly contribution is based on your highest superable salary up to 1 September each year. Superable salary includes base salary, higher duties received continuously for 12 months or more, and approved allowances. It doesn’t generally include leave loading, expense or travelling allowances, performance pay or overtime.

For part-time employees the superable salary is always the full-time equivalent. Higher duties only lift the September adjustment if they have run continuously for at least 12 months before 1 September. Your superable salary will generally not drop automatically if your actual pay drops during the year — you can elect to reduce it, but that election is binding and lowers your Final Average Salary for future benefits. Detail is in the ESSSuper Transport Scheme Handbook, issued 1 July 2026.