This week, Australia’s second-largest super fund experienced an outage that for days halted pension payments for retirees who depend on them for critical income. Not only that, but (almost) no one uttered a word.

The company, Australian Retirement Trust (ART), didn’t make a statement and the media didn’t notice. Yet, the primary income source for about 99,200 people was interrupted and the company may still be suffering technical problems.

If a bank or major employer went down for nearly two days, it would be all over the news. But retirees continue to be invisible to the media and regulators.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The first inkling of an issue came from a talkback caller to 4BC in Brisbane late on Wednesday, who asked where her money was. It transpired the caller had a different, individual issue – but her call led a few other people to speak out, and that raised my curiosity. Affected members had been notified of the problem, but no one else seemed to know anything about it – no media, no trade press, no wider market awareness.

When asked to comment on Thursday, an ART spokesperson said the matter that halted all pension payments began on Monday at 11.48am and delayed pension payments to all members who were due in that fortnightly cycle; payments normally would have gone out on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Thirty-six hours later, on Wednesday afternoon, ART said it had pushed pension payments through to banks – which can take up to two days to process them, leaving some people waiting until Friday for their pension. But ART had ongoing issues – the app was down on Thursday, and voluntary drawdowns were disrupted for a short period midweek.

The company said its drawdown and payment........

© Brisbane Times