Advice for your Super SA scheme.

Triple S has been the default for South Australian government employees since 1 July 1995. Super SA Select is a separate taxed option you can choose, and the Lump Sum and Pension Schemes are older closed arrangements.

Super SA’s own scheme guide puts you in Triple S if you joined the SA public sector on or after 4 May 1994, unless you later directed contributions to Select. The Pension Scheme closed to new members in May 1986; the Lump Sum Scheme closed in May 1994. A separate closed defined-benefit scheme applies to eligible SA Ambulance Service employees who started before 1 July 2008. If you hold a Lump Sum or Pension Scheme benefit and have salary sacrificed or received a government co-contribution, you’ll also have a Triple S account.

Yes. Super SA describes Triple S as an untaxed, or tax-deferred, fund: contributions and investment earnings aren’t taxed while the money sits in Triple S. The tax is taken when the money leaves — as a cash withdrawal, or when you transfer to Super SA’s Flexible Rollover Product, Income Stream or another super fund.

That is the single thing members most often get wrong. Untaxed doesn’t mean you never pay tax. Super SA says that in most cases the rate is 15% if you’re 60 or over, or up to 30% if you’re under 60, on the taxable (untaxed) component. A 2% Medicare levy is added where tax is payable on a cash withdrawal; a rollover to another fund doesn’t attract the Medicare levy. Roll that untaxed money into a taxed fund and 15% is deducted on transfer. Amounts above the $1,935,000 untaxed plan cap for 2026–27 are taxed at 45% plus the Medicare levy. The Lump Sum Scheme and the Pension Scheme are untaxed on the same basis.

If you leave SA public sector employment, Super SA lets most Triple S members take a cash benefit from age 55 — or from 50 if you’re a Triple S Police member. Access before 60 attracts extra tax.

If you stay in your SA government job, Super SA’s Transition to Retirement income stream opens from age 60: you need at least $36,500 in Triple S, you roll at least $30,000 into a Super SA Income Stream, and you keep a minimum of $6,500 in Triple S (Police and most SA Ambulance operational members keep $25,000). From 65 you can take a partial cash withdrawal from Triple S even while still employed. Co-contribution amounts and some rolled-in money stay under Commonwealth preservation rules, which can delay access to those slices. Super SA also notes that if you roll Triple S into another fund, the age-55 cash access doesn’t travel with the money.

Yes. Super SA lets Triple S members transfer to another complying fund, including Super SA Select and the Flexible Rollover Product. If you’re still employed in the SA public sector, a full transfer generally requires a Fund Selection directing future employer contributions away from Triple S for all your active SA Government employers; a partial transfer can be made without one.

The minimum transfer is $1,000, and Super SA requires you to leave at least $6,500 behind after a partial transfer — $25,000 if you’re a Police officer or SA Ambulance operational staff. Those members can only make a full transfer between Triple S and Super SA Select; a partial transfer can go to any complying fund. Super SA allows one partial transfer per financial year. The untaxed component of what you move counts toward your lifetime untaxed plan cap, and 15% tax is deducted from that component when a taxed fund receives it. A full transfer closes the Triple S account and ends the insurance, unless the move is Triple S to Select, in which case Super SA leaves Triple S in place for insurance.

Super SA Select is Super SA’s taxed accumulation option. Fifteen per cent contributions tax comes out when employer and salary-sacrifice money arrives, the same way most Australian funds work. Triple S is untaxed: that tax waits until you take the money out.

Because Select is taxed, Super SA says members can be eligible for the Commonwealth Low Income Superannuation Tax Offset (up to $500 if adjusted taxable income is $37,000 or less) and the First Home Super Saver Scheme — neither of which is available in Triple S. Select has an annual concessional contributions cap of $32,500 for 2026–27. Triple S works differently: instead of an annual concessional cap it has the lifetime untaxed plan cap — though if you’re also receiving concessional contributions in a taxed fund, the annual cap can still count your Triple S contributions, and after-tax contributions have their own annual limit. Insurance can stay attached to Triple S if you move the balance to Select, while you remain employed in the SA public sector and eligible for that cover. Super SA will deduct 15% from the untaxed portion of a Triple S balance rolled into Select. We don’t tell you to switch or stay; we can put the two side by side, including a look at five leading comparable funds, if you want to see where Select or another option sits.

No. Super SA closed the Pension Scheme to new members in May 1986 and the Lump Sum Scheme in May 1994. Both still pay benefits to existing members.

The Pension Scheme is a defined benefit: Super SA pays an indexed fortnightly income, a percentage of final salary, if you leave the SA public sector after 55 and meet the scheme rules. The pension is adjusted twice a year, in April and October, to Adelaide CPI. The Lump Sum Scheme is a hybrid — an employer defined-benefit component plus a member accumulation account — and a benefit becomes payable on retirement, retrenchment or resignation — though resigning before 55 doesn’t necessarily release everything in cash, and cashing early can reduce the employer component. Both are untaxed funds, so the 15% contributions tax is taken when you leave the scheme rather than on the way in. Salary sacrifice and government co-contributions for these members go into a Triple S account, so you can hold two schemes at once. A separate closed defined-benefit scheme, SAAMB, applies to SA Ambulance Service employees who started before 1 July 2008.

For 2026–27 the cap is $1,935,000. Super SA applies it as a lifetime limit on concessional contributions and earnings in Triple S; the ATO also treats the same figure as a per-plan limit on the concessional tax treatment of an untaxed lump sum.

That per-plan point is why consolidation is a planning issue, not a bit of tidy-up. Triple S, the Lump Sum Scheme and the Pension Scheme are separate plans, so a member who holds Triple S alongside a Lump Sum or Pension entitlement has two caps rather than one. Rolling those untaxed interests together can reduce two separate caps to one. Super SA’s published transfer material says the untaxed component of any amount transferred or withdrawn from Triple S counts toward the cap, and Super SA recommends obtaining advice before you make that change. Amounts above the cap are taxed at 45% plus the Medicare levy.

The Flexible Rollover Product is Super SA’s accumulation account for money that has left Triple S, the Lump Sum Scheme or the Pension Scheme. Super SA lets you move preserved super there at any age after you resign, and later turn it into a Super SA Income Stream — a regular payment rather than a lump sum.

You can start that income stream from 60 while still working, as a Transition to Retirement arrangement, or after you meet a condition of release. When Triple S, Lump Sum or Pension money rolls into the FRP, the untaxed component generally has 15% deducted on the way in, because the FRP is a taxed product. Eligibility, on Super SA’s own page, is that you’re still a member of an SA public sector scheme, or you received a Super SA entitlement in the last 24 months, or you’re a spouse of a current member, and you have at least $1,500 to roll in.

Yes. We can advise on the Super SA account you already hold. If another option is relevant, we’ll explain why and compare it with your current arrangement before recommending a change.

The first conversation is free and takes about half an hour. Tell us what you’d like to discuss and we’ll explain if and how we can help, including any fees, before you decide to go ahead.