In early 2022, in recognition of the financial impact that Covid-19 had on many in the community that were still facing economic challenges, Government announced its intention to provide additional financial support and relief.
The 2022/2023 Budget Statement recognized the Government’s actions over the previous two years to allow persons to have voluntary access to their pension in case they were having financial difficulty resulting from the pandemic. In particular, in 2020 residents could withdraw up to $12,000 and in 2021, they could withdraw up to $6,000.
Reflecting Government’s continued commitment to provide an additional avenue for financial relief, it provided pension plan members and former members of defined contribution plans and individual, local retirement products with the ability to voluntarily withdraw up to a further $6,000 from their pension accounts.
As in previous temporary refunds, the applications for these refunds are made by plan members or former members to their pension plan administrators and applicants can only be approved once.
Applications have to be made between 1 July 2022 and 30 June, 2023.
