Victoria Police super
the ESSS defined benefit, decoded

The Emergency Services Superannuation Scheme (ESSS) Defined Benefit Fund covers operational employees of Victoria Police, Fire Rescue Victoria and Ambulance Victoria. Operational police officers join automatically. Protective Services Officers who started on or after 5 July 2010 are classed as operational and join too.

In a defined benefit fund your employer's contributions don't go into your own account. They go into a pooled fund, and your benefit is set by a formula. Investment returns don't change it, and management fees are met by your employer. The trade-off is that the formula rewards long service and the right contribution rate, and punishes a slow start.

Your ESSS benefit doesn't depend on markets. It depends on your contribution rate, your years of service and your last two years of salary.

Each year of full-time service adds to your accrued benefit multiple (ABM). How much it adds depends on the contribution rate you chose that year. At the end, your lump sum is your ABM times your final average salary (FAS), the average of your superable salary over your last two years.

The retirement rates changed when the fund moved from untaxed to taxed on 1 July 2005, which is why the death and Optional Benefit column is higher. Members who joined before 1 July 1988 may have a higher maximum. You can change your rate once a calendar year, and switch between after-tax and salary sacrifice at any time.

The numbers make the case plainly. Contributing nothing for 30 years builds 2.55 x FAS. Contributing 7% builds 7.5 x FAS, nearly three times as much. At this salary the extra benefit is about $588,778, for member contributions of about $249,785 over the whole career. Most of the difference is funded by the employer side of the pool.

There are good reasons some officers choose a lower rate for a while: a new mortgage, a young family, or a partner on leave. The point is to choose deliberately and to use the catch-up rates later if you can. ESSSuper's own retirement multiple calculator, listed in the sources below, shows the effect on your actual record.

Each example applies the PDS accrual rates exactly. Salaries come from the pay table effective 1 June 2026 and are shown in today's dollars, assuming pay rises keep pace with inflation.

Career C shows the cost of drifting. Had that officer chosen 7% from day one, 25 years would have built 6.25 x FAS. The five years on nil cost about $98,130 in lump sum at this salary. Catch-up rates can recover some of that if the officer has enough service left.

Promotion matters because FAS is only your last two years. A promotion to Sergeant or Senior Sergeant late in a career lifts the whole benefit, not just the final years. See Victoria Police promotion for how the ranks and pay points work.

Officers who join young and contribute 7% throughout reach the maximum multiple around 30 years in. ESSSuper then writes to you and your pay office, and your member contributions stop. Your benefit keeps growing with your salary, because it is still 7.5 times FAS.

From then on the employer pays extra contributions into an ESSSuper Accumulation Plan account. For 2026-27 the rate is 12% of salary. Unlike the DB benefit, this part is an ordinary accumulation balance, so it depends on returns. In career A above, eight years of 12% contributions on a Sergeant's salary project to about $143,000 in today's dollars.

You can pay your member contributions before tax instead of after. The before-tax rate is higher (8.3% instead of 7%) because contributions tax is taken on the way in, but your benefit is the same. Because your taxable income falls, take-home pay usually rises.

Calculated by us with 2026-27 tax rates for a Senior Constable at point 12. The ESSS PDS gives its own example on an $88,000 salary at 2024-25 rates, a gain of $1,193 a year. Three cautions apply. You can only sacrifice 100% of your member contributions, not part. Sacrificed amounts count as reportable employer super contributions, which can affect Centrelink, family tax and child support assessments. And the lump sum is taxed differently from after-tax contributions if you take it before 60.

How the cap works in ESSS

Employer contributions to a defined benefit fund aren't real deposits, so the law uses notional taxed contributions instead. These count towards your $32,500 concessional cap together with any salary sacrifice. ESSSuper reports the figure to the ATO each year. Members who joined before 12 May 2009 and haven't increased their rate are grandfathered and won't exceed the cap through the DB fund alone.

Retirement, resignation and retrenchment benefits are all paid as lump sums. Once you've left, you choose what to do with it. Your choice changes both your tax and your benefit calculation.

1. 1

   ESSSuper Accumulation Plan

   Taxed basis

   Transfer the lump sum into an accumulation account and keep it invested. Calculated on the post-2005 taxed accrual rates.

2. 2

   ESSSuper Income Stream

   Regular income

   Use the lump sum to start an account-based pension, subject to your age and the amount.

3. 3

   ESSSuper Beneficiary Account (Optional Benefit)

   Higher multiple, more tax

   Transfer 100% of your benefit calculated on the pre-1 July 2005 untaxed accrual rates, up to 8.4 x FAS. The untaxed element is taxed when you take it: 17% (including Medicare) up to $1,780,000 under the PDS figures.

4. 4

   Roll over or take cash

   Your choice

   Roll the benefit to another fund, or take any unrestricted non-preserved component as cash.

From 60, a benefit on the taxed basis is tax-free. Before 60, part of it is taxable. If you've reached preservation age you can convert 20% to 50% of your accrued benefit to ESSSuper's Working Income Stream (transition to retirement), with a $50,000 minimum, and your multiple reduces in proportion. This is a decision to make with ESSSuper's figures and, ideally, a licensed adviser.

Leaving before 50 for any reason, including dismissal, gives a resignation benefit. It's lower than a retirement benefit because the most recent years are counted at your contribution rate plus 3% instead of the full accrual rate.

A resignation benefit is preserved, so you generally can't spend it until 60. If you're thinking of leaving at 47 or 48, waiting until 50 turns it into a full retirement benefit, which is worth a close look. Leave balances matter too: read Victoria Police leave for what's paid out on exit. If you're moving to another force rather than leaving policing, see the interstate transfer guide.

Disability and death benefits use the higher accrual column and add a prospective multiple, as if you had kept contributing at the maximum rate until 55. That makes them generous for younger officers who have contributed at 7%.

Disability pensions attract a 15% tax offset as rebateable pensions. Since 1 July 2014, a former contributor or police recruit who left on or after 1 July 2008 can apply within six years of leaving for a disability benefit, if they were disabled when they left. In October 2023 the government also announced a $15 million contingency fund paying lump sums to members aged 55 to 59 who become disabled or die before reaching the maximum benefit.

This page is general information, not financial advice. ESSSuper's financial advisers and The Police Association Victoria can help with your own position; see our guide to police associations. For pay context see the Victoria Police pay deal, and compare with the accumulation schemes in NSW and Queensland.