The Australian Taxation Office has revealed $380 million has been lost in guaranteed super payments, and that some of this will be unrecoverable because businesses have collapsed and the money is simply not there.

And this figure could well be higher, according to the ATO, because employees may be unaware of non payment, or, if they are, are too worried about their jobs to challenge the situation.

In a time when unemployment is rising, lenders are nervous and businesses contract, more should be done to protect workers' nest eggs.

Swift action was taken to protect banks as the scope of the global financial crisis was revealed. Superannuation for ''working families'' must be considered a priority of the same order. The tax office has revealed that many of the payment failures were at the ''small end'' of town.

But unless the Government intervenes, it is powerless to assist employees who are owed money by companies that have wound down their assets and are placed in liquidation. And clearly, some businesses are exploiting the process by deliberately running up obligations with the aim of eventually liquidating the corporate entity.

The Government's plans to investigate the issue and the ATO's separate inquiry are welcome but must be fast-tracked in light of the recession. Guaranteed superannuation payments should come under the umbrella of the federal scheme that safeguards wages, holiday pay and redundancy in cases where employers go bankrupt or are liquidated.

In a week where politicians' travel and electoral allowances $215 a night have raised the public's hackles, this latest blow to employees should not be placed on an inquiry back burner. We need immediate responses: early intervention, the establishment of a transparent system of payment, and closer, quicker monitoring of guaranteed superannuation payments.