WARNING: There’s a Superannuation Processing SCAM Targeting Dental Implant Patients. Read this before applying for any “free” services to help you through this process.

There’s been a huge amount of interest from patients recently in using their Superannuation to pay for dental implant treatments. In the 21/22 financial year, 8,020 patients accessed $171,300,000 of superannuation for dental treatment. You’re not alone in being interested in accessing Super to fund your dental implant treatment. 

The problem is, dental marketing agencies have tapped into this and they’re now pushing and coercing patients through this process. It’s truly shocking what’s happening.

In one case, a company is blasting ads all over Facebook and Instagram saying they will help you process your early access Superannuation application “completely FREE”. Their website even makes a point to highlight that similar companies charge $750 upfront for this service, but they claim their service is “FREE”.

So what’s the catch?

Well, when you click through to the privacy policy on their website you read that the fee for their “FREE” service is actually $1,800. Their terms state that the dentist pays this fee on your behalf. How kind of them… oh, until you keep reading and find out that if you decide to get a second opinion and want to switch dentists… you will be billed $1,800 for this “FREE” service.

Not only that… but this company actually outsources the application process to one of the “competitors” that normally charges patients $750 upfront for their service.

Sound confusing? In short… they’re ripping you off. You’ll pay 2.5X MORE than if you just reached out to a superannuation application processing company on your own instead of falling for their offer of “FREE” help.

What they’re doing is completely unethical, and possibly illegal. The ATO website clearly states that the fees from a third party helping you process your application CANNOT be charged to your superannuation. Yet these companies are packaging the $1800 fee in and ripping it out of your superannuation.

Worse than that… patients have a legal right to a second opinion. It’s a core right in our healthcare system. And that right is being compromised when vulnerable patients are told they have to pay a $1,800 fee if they take THEIR money and go to another dentist.

The superannuation money is YOUR money. Yes, you are legally required to spend it on dental treatment (heavy penalties apply if you misuse the funds, but I’ll get into that later in this guide). But it is your money. You cannot and should not be held hostage and feel forced to spend it with the particular dentist who signed up to this marketing scheme.

With that warning out of the way, I sincerely hope the following guide helps you navigate early access to Superannuation. We have worked hard to map out the process in a clear and simple way so you understand what it’s all about, who qualifies, and how you go about applying. We have also included reference to a company that we highly recommend to help you through this process if you choose to get help with the paperwork. We DO NOT get paid a referral fee for telling you about this Superannuation application processing company. We just want to help steer you towards the ethical people, because there are a lot of sharks in this area.

Before we dive in, please note:

THIS IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. WE ARE NOT FINANCIAL PLANNERS. THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION IS PROVIDED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

It’s a huge financial decision to make. If you choose to use Super to pay for dental implants, there are lots of different financial implications. It can impact your Centrelink benefits. There will be tax taken out on top of the cost of treatment. And more! When we say “speak to a financial advisor” we mean it. You need to be able to speak to someone who understands your situation and can advise you properly.

With that in mind, let’s dive in.

Introduction

One of the most frequent questions in the dental field is, "How do you get dental implants when you can't afford it?"

The reality is, there aren’t that many people that have $20,000 to $60,000 (or even more) just laying around ready to spend on dental implant treatment. Patients use a variety of methods to pay for implants including using savings, getting dental loans, redrawing on their mortgage, and also using Superannuation. This guide focuses on how to access your Superannuation before retirement age to pay for dental implants.

What Is Early Release Of Superannuation For Dental Implant Treatment?

Early release of super on compassionate grounds means you can take out money from your superannuation fund before you retire. Usually, you can't touch this money until you're older and stop working, but in special cases, like if you have a severe illness or need important medical treatments, you can ask to get access to that money earlier.

There are two different categories that people use to apply for dental treatment. If you are in chronic or acute pain due to your dental disease, you may be eligible. However some patients also apply on mental health grounds. We’ll dive into the mental health grounds in more detail later in this guide.

So, if you have a serious dental problem and don't have enough money to pay for it, you might be able to use money from your superannuation to cover the cost. You may even be eligible to use someone else’s superannuation to pay for your dental treatment IF you can prove you are financially dependent on them. However, there are rules and paperwork you'll have to follow to prove that you really need the money for your treatment.

How Does Early Release Of Superannuation For Dental Implant Treatment Work?

Here's how it works in simple steps:

• Call Your Super Fund: The first thing you should do is call the company where your superannuation fund is kept. Ask them if they let people take out money early for medical reasons like dental implants. While you're talking to them, also ask how much tax you'll have to pay if you take money out for treatment.
  
  

• Visit a Trusted Dentist: Go see a trusted dentist and tell them you're thinking about using your superannuation to pay for the dental implants. They'll check your teeth, take photos and x-rays, and give you a plan that says what treatments you need and how much it will cost. You'll need this plan for the paperwork later.
  
  

• Submit ATO Paperwork: The ATO (Australian Tax Office) needs to know why you want to take money out of your super fund early. You'll have to fill out detailed forms and show them the treatment plan from your dentist.
  
  

• Submit Superannuation Company Paperwork: Finally, you'll also need to fill out forms for your superannuation company. These are different from the ATO forms and are necessary for your super fund to release the money.
  
  

After all the paperwork is done and approved, you can use the money from your super fund to pay for your dental implant treatment.

What Happens If I Spend The Money On Something Else?

It can be very tempting to spend this money on something other than dental treatment. Suddenly a home reno seems tempting. DO NOT DO IT! You are highly likely to get reported to the ATO and the ATO then asks for receipts to show how you spent the money. If you cannot produce receipts, you will be charged a hefty fine of 20% of your annual income.

Plus… if you don’t use the money for its designated purpose, you cannot come back again later and apply for more money. The ATO will not release more funds for dental treatment unless you prove to them that the first release of money was spent on the treatment you requested it for.

Who Qualifies For Early Release of Superannuation for Dental Implant Treatment?

So now that you know it is possible to access super to pay for dental implants, the question is, how do you know if you qualify? Here are three critical areas to understand:

Chronic or Acute Pain

Pain is the most common reason that patients give for why they are accessing their super to pay for dental implants. If you're experiencing chronic or acute pain due to dental issues, you might qualify for an early release of your superannuation. This pain could be due to missing teeth, gum infections, or other dental diseases that a dentist can identify and confirm as needing treatment. To qualify, you'll need a comprehensive treatment plan from a trusted dentist that outlines the severity of your condition and the recommended treatment.

Mental Health Grounds

While it’s much less common, there are patients who are able to access super based on the way their dental disease is negatively impacting their mental health. In such cases, you'll need a proper psychiatrist to review your condition in addition to your dental review. After a complete evaluation, they can issue a letter stating that dental implant treatment is essential for your mental well-being, which you can then include in your application for an early release.

Financial Dependence: Using Someone Else’s Superannuation

What if you don't have enough in your own super fund? You’ll still need to qualify based on either pain or mental health grounds. But interestingly, you may be eligible to tap into the superannuation fund of an adult child, parent, or spouse if you are financially dependent on them. Financial dependence could mean a variety of things, from being a stay-at-home parent relying on a spouse's income to being an adult child still supported by your parents. The key is to be able to demonstrate this dependence clearly when you're applying for an early release, often through financial documents like bank statements or tax returns.

There are actually lots of different ways this can be used. For example, some patients choose to do a combined application where they access some of their own super, some of their spouses super, and some of their parent’s super.

How Much Money Can I Get From My Super Fund for Dental Work?

Interestingly, there is no minimum or maximum amount you are allowed to withdraw. The only restriction is that the ATO prefer to release payment for a maximum of 6-12 months worth of dental treatment. If you have a complex case that is likely to stretch out over a very long period of time, you will usually have to apply more than once to the ATO for a release of money.

The other thing is that if you pay for help to process your application, there's a fee for that help. Generally, most people use other payment options if their treatment is less than $6,000.

Do I Need a Certain Amount of Super to Pay for My Dental Work?

There's no rule that says you must have "X" amount of dollars in your super fund to use it for dental care. But, the more money you have in there, the easier it will be to cover all your dental costs.

However, even though there's no set minimum, you need to think about the future. Your super fund is there to help you when you retire. If you take out money now, you'll have less money when you're older and not working anymore. So make sure you really need it for your dental work before you decide to take it out. And speak to a financial advisor about your unique situation.

If you manage your own super fund, you just need to make sure you have enough 'liquid assets.' If all your money is tied up in property or the stock market, you cannot withdraw from a self-managed super fund.

How Long Does It Take to Get My Super Money for Dental Work?

Now, let's talk about time. How long do you have to wait before the money is released to you? The answer can vary depending on a few things. And remember… Just because you apply DOES NOT mean you will be approved. The following information is a guide based on the assumption that someone is successful in getting approved the first time they apply.

Doing It Yourself Can Take Time

If you decide to fill out all the paperwork yourself, be prepared for some waiting. It might take a long time, even months, going back and forth with forms and questions. If you say the wrong thing on your paperwork, or simply don’t give the ATO or super fund exactly what they want, your application can get rejected or delayed. 

Doing the application by yourself can take months to get it processed, and you’ll likely have to spend hours on the phone to the ATO and your super fund sorting issues out. For many patients, the added stress of dealing with all the paperwork and phone calls just gets in the way of them getting the treatment they need.

Making the decision to invest in these big dental implant treatments is a very emotional process and for many patients the paperwork is just added stress that they don’t want.

Getting Professional Help for Speed

You can hire a professional company that specialises in helping patients with this application process. We recommend Super Health Ensemble because of the experience they provide to patients and the values they live out in their business. The founder of Super Health Ensemble, Mary Barker, had to access super for her own surgery in 2018. And through that process she realised that many patients would be overwhelmed by the process and delay getting the treatment they need because it’s simply too hard.

Mary’s team makes the process easy for patients. They understand they’re working with patients who have experienced trauma, and they are supportive through the entire process. Their team simply calls you for any information they need, then they fill in all the paperwork on your behalf. They call the ATO and your super fund every single day to see where the process is up to. And patients often get fully funded in just 3-weeks. 

There are three companies we know of that offer this service: Super Health Ensemble, SuperCare and Access My Super. and we DO NOT get paid a referral fee from any of these companies. These services cost around $650-750 to help you with the paperwork. Most of them require up-front payment, however I do know Super Health Ensemble are able to offer payment plans if you need it.

REMEMBER: Beware of anyone offering “FREE” services to help with this paperwork. Check their privacy policy and/or terms and conditions. It is highly likely a hidden fee is being added to the cost of your treatment. One of the worst cases of this we’ve seen is a company charging $1,800 for a service they claim is “FREE”.

Two Sets of Paperwork

Remember, there are two important steps in getting your money:

1. Filling out forms for the ATO (Australian Tax Office).

2. Filling out forms for your super fund company.

Both of these steps take time. If you’re DIYing the process, it’s a good idea to prepare your superannuation paperwork as soon as you send your ATO application off, so it’s ready to submit as soon as you get the go-ahead from the ATO.

Keep Your Receipts

Remember to hold on to your receipts. You'll need to show them if you want to take out more super money in the future.

So, if you're in a hurry to fix your teeth, consider getting professional help to speed up the process. But no matter what, be ready to wait a little while. Good things (like a beautiful smile) can take time.

Tax Implications You Need To Be Aware Of

Before we dive into these tax implications just a reminder that this IS NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE. This is simply information for educational purposes. Please speak to a financial advisor to make sure you understand all the implications before you choose to access superannuation!

Extra Tax

When you take money out of your superannuation before retirement age, you will be taxed on the money released. Your super fund can advise you on how much tax you will pay if you take money out. So give them a call and ask them whether you have any super that can be taken out tax-free, or if all of it will be taxed. Sometimes patients have a portion of their super that can be taken out tax free (usually much older patients), but many patients will be taxed on all the money that comes out.

The additional tax is also taken out of your super fund, on top of the money that is withdrawn to pay for treatment.

Centrelink Payments

If you receive any centrelink benefits at all, including but not limited to parenting payments, child care benefits, rent assistance etc you MUST be aware that this withdrawal counts as income. Some people have found themselves in the awful position of losing their benefits and being in a very difficult financial situation because they did not understand this.

Again, I cannot stress this enough, please speak to a financial advisor who can tell you exactly how these concepts apply to your unique situation.

Conclusion and Key Links

I sincerely hope this guide has been helpful. There are a lot of marketing companies out there right now trying to push this on patients, which is both unethical and in some cases, illegal. I sincerely hope this has helped you to better understand the early release of superannuation. If you’ve found value in this, please share it with someone else who might find this helpful.

At the end of the day, the one thought I want to leave you with is this: figuring out how to pay for complex dental implant work is a massive challenge for most patients. But it’s not actually the most important decision you’ll make in this process. Choosing your dental implant surgeon is the most important decision you'll make in your journey to a new smile.

Cost alone shouldn't be the focus of a patient's research. Getting dental implants is a serious operation. More often than not, the cheaper the dentist, the less experience they have. 

This of course is not always the case. Just because someone’s charging a premium fee doesn’t mean they’re skilled. In fact in 6 years of working with dentists, we saw a consistent problem in the dental implant space. There are brilliant surgeons with decades of experience, but they're not always social media savvy. At the same time, some newer dentists are great on social media but might lack experience.

That's why we created a platform where patients can easily find trusted and experienced dental implant surgeons, without the noise of online marketing getting in the way. At our live online information evenings, you get to meet experienced surgeons from the comfort of your own home.

Join Us for More Insight

We help patients connect with highly experienced dental implant surgeons through our live online information evenings. All of the surgeons that we partner with are committed to providing positive and empowering patient care.

Our information evening gives you the chance to meet a surgeon without the fear and anxiety of walking into a dental clinic. Plus you get to ask your questions directly to experienced dental surgeons because our events are actually live. So, if you're thinking about dental implants, make sure to register for our upcoming information evening.