A mother-of-two has discovered almost $50,000 in unclaimed superannuation after years of putting off consolidating her accounts – and many other Australians could have the same windfall with a quick online search.

Perth woman Fiona, 59, checked her super after learning Aussie women over the age of 55 are increasingly falling into homelessness.

While not expecting much from the search through myGov, Fiona ‘nearly fell off’ her chair in surprise after finding $45,000 in a forgotten account from a previous job.

She had lost track of the account after forgetting to update her address while moving around the country and taking on a number of different jobs. 

When letters from superannuation providers did come, she would often throw them out mistakenly believing them to be advertising.

But the shocking find has led to her urging other Aussies to check their super accounts as they too could have a surprise. 

‘I feel stupid I didn’t do it earlier. If you have a tax file number, it takes five minutes,’ she told 7News.

‘You really do need to look after yourself, spend a few minutes making sure everything you have worked for is attributed to you correctly.’

Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Emma Rosenzweig said Fiona is one of many residents the organisation has helped to reclaim their forgotten super.

Some $6.4billion of unclaimed super has been recovered since 2021. 

‘But there is still more than $17.8 billion waiting to be found,’ Ms Rosenzweig said in September.

‘If you’ve changed job, moved house or simply forgotten to update your details, you may have lost or unclaimed super.

‘We’re urging Australians to check if some of the $17.8 billion in lost and unclaimed super belongs to them.

‘Even if you’ve retired you could have lost or unclaimed super. The ATO is holding $471 million on behalf of people aged 65-plus.’

Aussies eager to check if they have lost super have been urged to spend a few minutes completing the ATO’s ‘five-step Super Health Check’.

‘All you need is (to) confirm your contact details, check super balances and employer contributions, look for lost and unclaimed super, find multiple accounts and consider consolidating (and) confirm nominated beneficiaries,’ an ATO statement reads.