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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2020-10-23 06:30
Last update date: 2020-10-23 06:30
At the meeting of the Legislative Council on Wednesday (21st), a member asked whether the authorities would allow the public to withdraw the accrued benefits of the Mandatory Provident Fund account in order to alleviate urgent needs. The integrity of the financial system", so it has no intention to implement it.
The original intention of the MPF is indeed to help the working population save for retirement expenses, but now there are indeed many people in urgent need of money. Such a dilemma is undoubtedly the government's self-control.
According to the latest labor force statistics released by the Census and Statistics Department, the unemployment rate in Hong Kong climbed to 6.4% from July to September, and the total number of unemployed persons is nearly 260,000.
Faced with this uncertain economic freeze, Legislative Councillor Xie Weijun asked the government on Wednesday to comply with the demands of the general public and the majority of legislators to allow citizens to withdraw their compulsory account accrued rights. He believed that this would not only relieve the public’s concerns. The urgent need can alleviate the financial pressure on the government to implement relief measures.
However, Xu Zhengyu believes that the early withdrawal of accrued benefits will reduce the settlement used for retirement reserves. Not only will it lose the opportunity for rollover and appreciation, but it will also weaken the integrity of the MPF system. Therefore, the government has no intention to adjust the current policy.
Xu Zhengyu said that any proposal to allow early withdrawal of accrued benefits must take into account that the accrued benefits used by plan members as retirement reserves will be reduced accordingly.
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Lack of unemployment support and retirement protection
However, on the one hand, the unemployed people lack sufficient assistance.
The government has provided many relief measures in the "Anti-epidemic Fund" and "Protecting Employment" programs, but most of the policies are biased towards helping the business sector to maintain their jobs. Even if the treasury reserves have been reduced by nearly 300 billion yuan in recent months, it does not mean that there is no slippage. fish.
In particular, when the government’s unemployment rate in industries such as consumption, tourism, and catering service activities keeps hitting new highs, it does not mention a new round of relief measures, and the employment protection plan will soon expire, and many employers will definitely reorganize. The structure and closure of business will reduce operating expenses, and the unemployment rate will hardly peak in the short term.
As for the temporary relaxation of the unemployment CSSA application threshold in the second round of the "Anti-epidemic Anti-epidemic Fund", the time limit for the relaxation has been set until November 30. After the relaxation, the asset limit for families with able-bodied adults is only 88,000 yuan (a two-person family), this amount can barely cover the basic expenses of one and a half years, but it will definitely be stretched for families that need to pay for regular expenses such as building mortgages and children's education, let alone support it until the end of the epidemic.
On the other hand, the MPF provides limited protection after retirement, and many citizens are more focused on the immediate needs.
According to government information, among the more than 4 million MPF scheme members, about 36% have accrued benefits of 10,000 yuan or less; accounts with accrued benefits of between 10,000 and 50,000 accounted for 26%; Accounts ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 yuan accounted for 12%, and the average accrued equity was 250,000 yuan.
In other words, this retirement protection system will not be effective until 20 to 30 years later. It is hard to say that people close to retirement can get adequate protection; and the plan does not cover the elderly, low-income people and non-employed people.
Compared with the MPF, which works like a scratch, it is understandable that some citizens wish to withdraw part of the balance.
Government must support people in need
It is not difficult to see that the citizens are currently in a dilemma.
If the MPF emergency is not drawn, life can only be left to the right. But if allowed to do so, the already limited retirement life will be even more worrying.
In the final analysis, the problem is that the government does not have enough unemployment support, only tens of billions to support employers, and there is no adequate retirement protection system.
In the past, many people in Hong Kong thought that those who were able would inevitably get more, and that the unemployed should be attributed to their inadequate efforts. However, the new crown epidemic has completely challenged this kind of thinking and made people see that the economic and social structure will magnify social injustice.
At this time, it is very important for the government to allocate resources through social policies and provide sufficient protection to the people in need.
In addition to the current unemployment relief, in the long run, the government will also reform the retirement protection system when aging is approaching.
As Professor Zhou Yongxin published in 2014 the "Research Report on the Future Development of Hong Kong’s Retirement Protection" pointed out that the public’s attitude towards retirement protection is no longer what it used to be. Most people support the establishment of exemption from means test, tripartite contributions by labor and management officials, and increase The system of collecting profits tax on consortia serves as the cornerstone of universal retirement protection.
However, after the reunification, the Hong Kong government has inherited the neoliberal governance thinking of the colonial period, focusing on the market's role in resource allocation. It is only willing to make minor repairs in poverty alleviation policies, and throw medicine and stones into the land to deal with the retirement life of the poor.
However, with the aging of the population and changes in the family structure, the government must also carefully consider setting up a pension without review in the future. This will ensure that the elderly in their twilight years can enjoy their old age with dignity even in the face of fate.
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