Psychological distress among Australian workers accessing the COVID-19 Superannuation Early Access Scheme

To the Editor

Over 75% of Australians reported that their mental health had worsened and 50% worried about their financial situation in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic (Newby et al., 2020). People who were under financial strain or were unemployed experienced higher levels of negative emotions during the pandemic (Rossell et al., 2021). One of the Australian government responses to financial insecurity brought on by the pandemic was the COVID-19 Superannuation Early Release Scheme which allowed workers to access their own superannuation for short-term financial relief.

We compared the level of psychological distress among people who accessed their superannuation and those that did not in an online cross-sectional survey embedded in a mental well-being app. We partnered with five superannuation funds that targeted members who had accessed the Early Release Scheme and three superannuation funds that targeted their general membership, using email and social media posts during July to November 2020. In all, 1098 participants completed the Distress Questionanaire-5 (DQ5) (Batterham et al., 2016) and self-reported the impact of COVID-19 on their physical health, financial health and employment opportunities on a scale from 1 to 7 (negative to positive). This study was approved by the University of Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee.

The participants had poor mental health on average (64% met the DQ-5 cutpoint of ⩾14). In total, 532 (49%) had accessed their superannuation. They were older (M = 40.63, SD = 11.59 vs M = 38.93, SD = 14.18; t_1,1096 = −2.160, p = 0.031), more likely to be male (59% vs 41.3%; χ² = 33.265, p < 0.0005) and less likely to have completed university (64.1% vs 35.9%; χ² = 37.898, p < 0.0005) compared to those who did not access superannuation. Those accessing superannuation had higher distress (M = 15.98, SD = 4.80 vs M = 14.29, SD = 4.31, t_1,1096 = −6.127, p < 0.0005), were more likely to report an episode of mental ill-health in the past 2 years (65.6% vs 51.2%; χ² = 23.260, p < 0.0005) and reported a greater negative impact of COVID-19 on their physical health (M = 3.64, SD = 1.72 vs M = 3.92, SD = 1.64, t_1,1096 = 2.689, p = 0.007), financial health (M = 3.05, SD = 1.81 vs M = 4.31, SD = 1.75, t_1,1096 = 11.683, p < 0.0005) and employment opportunities (M = 3.02, SD = 1.92 vs M = 3.97, SD = 1.88, t_1,1096 = 8.342, p < 0.0005).

Although the online convenience sample limits generalisability, our findings showed that among people seeking digital mental health support, those who accessed their superannuation were more distressed and felt a greater impact of the pandemic. This suggests that this double disadvantaged group appropriately accessed mental health support in the app, but financial support or resources may mitigate some of the negative impacts.