The Federal Government has sought to reassure super fund members that employers will continue to report superannuation details on their payslips, even though a leading industry body believes that the disclosure will be deficient.

Following moves by the government to water down reporting requirements for employers, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) says workers should be told when payments will be made by their employer, giving them important information about their superannuation contributions.

But Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told The New Daily that the government was removing requirements on employers to report the date on which they expect to pay super contributions as well as the amount.

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Changes to the reporting requirements – to be introduced as part of the government’s crackdown on business red tape – will only require employers to disclose the amount of super accrued by workers for each pay period.

“Labor in government wanted to add an additional, and in our judgement unnecessary, regulatory burden by requiring employers to also specify the date they expect to make the superannuation contribution, as well as the amount,” Senator Cormann said.

“This change would have required employers to invest in major upgrades in their payment system software with minimal benefit to their employees.”

Senator Cormann said the regulations had never been introduced to give effect to the additional reporting requirement.

However, the peak body of superannuation trustees hit out at the government’s decision, saying that it would make it harder for workers to check on whether super payments were actually being made to their accounts.

Tom Garcia, the chief executive of the AIST, warned that the government was missing an opportunity to improve transparency in superannuation.

“There is a big difference between payslip reporting of ‘accrued’ super – which is the amount of super your employer intends to pay to you – versus the super that is ‘actually paid’ into your fund,” he said.

“Collectively, this difference is estimated at $1.3 billion of unpaid super – that’s $1.3 billion of workers’ super entitlements that may have been reported on payslips but were not actually paid into super accounts.

“We think the government should be concerned about this.”

Mr Garcia said reporting the accrued amount of a super on a payslip could be likened to reporting a “super IOU”, instead of providing proof that super had been paid.

Senator Cormann said the government’s campaign to slash red tape would deliver annual cost savings of $1 billion to Australian businesses.