QSuper Class Action

You are automatically a group member if you meet the criteria set out in the statement of claim, which is a court document filed by the Applicant when the class action began.  

You may be a group member (or “Fund Member”) in this class action if you held a QSuper superannuation account from May 2016 and were eligible for: 

• White Collar or Professional occupational rates; or 

• Standard occupational rates and you were under 39 years of age. 

You may also be eligible to register if at any time after 1 July 2016: 

• you represented or received a payment from a deceased Fund Member who met the eligibility criteria above; or  

• you were the former spouse of a person who met the eligibility criteria above and you received a transfer from a Fund Member, pursuant to an order or settlement in a Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) proceeding. 

If you meet the criteria above, we encourage you to register.  

If you would like to read about the eligibility criteria in more detail, please see paragraphs [16]-[17] of the opt out notice. 

Registering will enable you to receive updates on case milestones, including important updates about any compensation you may be eligible to receive, if the case is successful.  

If you register, your individual claim can be considered during any settlement negotiations.  

Additionally, if the case is successful, the Judge may make orders that any group member who is eligible for any compensation from the class action must register.  

If you do not register, there is a risk that you will not receive any compensation. 

Occupational rating affects how much you pay for insurance in your superannuation to reflect the level of risk related to your job or occupation. 

The class action alleges QSuper failed to introduce a system to occupationally rate members and/or failed to sufficiently communicate these changes to members.   

If you were eligible for Standard, White Collar, or Professional occupational rates, the class action alleges you were: 

• Charged significantly more for your life insurance than you should have been; and 

• Suffered superannuation investment losses. 

In the class action, standard, white collar and professional rates all refer to the premium you were charged for insurance cover within superannuation. Generally, each of these rates were lower than the ‘Default’ rate.  

Whether you fall into standard, white collar or professional for the purpose of the class action, depends on the level of risk related to your job or occupation from 1 July 2016.  

1. Standard rate – Applicable if your occupation was not classified as high risk, professional or white collar and if you were between the ages of 17 and 39 as at 1 July 2016. For example, this may include nurses, health care workers/carers, or manual light positions. 

2. White collar rate – Applicable if you spent 80% of your time in an office or classroom environment performing primarily administration or managerial duties as at 1 July 2016. For example, this may include managers, teachers, or call centre operators. 

3. Professional rate – Applicable if you were university educated relevant to your occupation, or a senior manager working in an office with an annual salary of $120,000.00 or more, as at 1 July 2016. For example, this may include surgeons, doctors, or executives.  

The types of occupations that are likely to fall into one of the above occupational rates include: 

• Teachers, teacher’s aides and school principals 

• Lawyers 

• Engineers  

• Information technology roles 

• Finance / accounting roles 

• Doctors and other allied health professionals 

• Executive or management roles (with a primary office-based job) 

• Nurses (aged under 39 as at May 2016) 

• Marketing roles. 

The class action does not include police, emergency services, cleaners, security guards and heavy manual and other hazardous occupations. Under the occupational rating system introduced by QSuper in May 2016, these were classified as 'High Risk’ and were not eligible to pay to lower premiums for insurance in superannuation. Generally, high risk rates were higher than standard, white collar and professional rates.   

The class action does not include ‘High Risk’ occupations, such as heavy manual and other identifiable occupations with higher risks such as police, emergency services, cleaners, security guards.  

This is because under the occupational rating system introduced by QSuper in May 2016, occupations which were classified as high risk were not eligible to pay to lower premiums for insurance in their superannuation. Generally, high risk rates were higher than standard, white collar and professional rates.   

In Australia, class actions are run on an ‘opt-out’ basis. This means that even if group members don’t actively sign up to the class action, they are automatically included if they meet the eligibility criteria.   

At a certain point in the case, the Judge will make orders that anyone who is eligible for the class action is notified of their right to opt-out of the class action. 

The opt out period for the QSuper Class Action ended at 4:00PM on 15 June 2023.  

The Federal Court of Australia sent Notices to all potential group members of the class action advising of their right to opt out of the class action. Opting out means you can pursue your own claim (subject to any applicable limitation periods), but you lose any right to compensation in this class action.  

If you missed the opt out deadline and would like to discuss the impact of this with a member of our team, please direct your enquiries to qsuper@shine.com.au. 

You can still register for the class action after the opt out deadline. 

You do not have to pay any money out of pocket to participate in this case.  

The QSuper class action is funded by a third-party company called Woodsford Group (Woodsford). Woodsford is a litigation funder that are paying the applicant’s legal costs of bringing the claim on behalf of all group members. We are also deferring some of our costs.  If the class action is successful, and the applicant obtains money from a settlement or judgment, she will repay to Woodsford any reasonable costs and a funding commission, as well as fees deferred by Shine Lawyers, together with an uplift of 25% on those deferred fees. 

In the event of a successful outcome, the legal fees and costs to run the case must be approved by the Court. Those fees and costs are typically deducted from the settlement amount before compensation is distributed to group members. This means that if you are a group member the Court may order that your proportionate share of the approved costs of the class action, be deducted from any recovery made in respect of your claim in return for Woodsford (and others, including Shine Lawyers) bearing the costs risk of the class action.  

If the claim is unsuccessful, Woodsford and Shine will be responsible for paying all costs on behalf of the lead applicant and all group members.

This means that either way, there are no out-of-pocket costs to you. 

If you would like to read about the costs in more detail, please see paragraphs [19]-[28] of the opt out notice.  

It is too early to determine what compensation you may be entitled to receive.  

If the case is successful, the amount of compensation payable to group members will vary depending on the individual circumstances of each group member, and the harm or loss that has been suffered. 

If you held a Qsuper superannuation account in May 2016, or received a payment after 1 July 2016 from a deceased Fund Member or a former spouse who was a Fund Member (pursuant to an order or settlement in a Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) proceeding), you may be entitled to compensation.  

In order to potentially recoup any financial loss you have suffered, you are encouraged to register in the QSuper Class Action. 

There are three criteria that need to be fulfilled for a class action to take place:

• There must be seven or more people claiming;

• The claims must arise out of the same, similar, or related circumstances; and

• The claim must relate to at least one common issue of law or fact.

Class actions in Australia work on an opt-out model. This means that all potential claimants become group members of the action whether they intend to participate or not. These group members are bound by the judgment of the court or settlement unless they opt-out. The group members in a class action are usually notified about the class action by order of the Court.

Due to the size of each individual claim, the costs of running this action as an individual would quickly exceed the potential damages recoverable. As each group member’s claim involves many common questions of fact and law, running this action as a class reduces the average cost of litigation to a client by only addressing the common issues once at trial, instead of multiple times.