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Written by: Commentary Editing Room
2021-01-22 07:00
Last update date: 2021-01-22 07:00
As the population ages, public policies related to retirement become more and more important.
The "2021 Economic Policy Green Paper" published last week by the School of Economics and Management of the University of Hong Kong also included a chapter on the public annuity system in retirement protection.
However, it is not enough to live in Hong Kong.
At present, the government provides citizens’ retirement protection channels mainly including MPF, public annuity, and elderly welfare allowances. Among them, the annuity plan allows citizens to receive a fixed amount of income every month until they are old, which is equivalent to buying retirement insurance "self-made long-term food".
The core is to transform the assets accumulated during retirement into a sustainable cash flow.
As the problem of Hong Kong’s ageing population becomes more and more obvious, the government must be determined to implement a universal surrender of insurance so that retired elderly people can enjoy their old age with dignity.
(Photo by Gong Jiasheng)
Low annuity participation and large allowances
At the beginning, the government set an insured amount of 1 million. It can be estimated that if a man insures 1 million at the age of 65, he will receive a fixed annuity of up to 5,800 yuan per month.
As for women, due to their longer life expectancy, the rate of return is lower, and the same premium is about 5,300 yuan per month.
The problem is that the premium of 1 million is out of reach for the poor elderly. For the middle-class and above, their monthly return will not be able to fully cope with their daily lives even if they do not consider future inflation. Therefore, they prefer to choose the rich and flexible market. Investment Products.
In addition, the government annuity is not insured for all people, but adopts a voluntary principle, so that the participation of the public annuity is not high. Only 8,900 insurance policies have been sold for two years. The low participation rate is not conducive to reducing the average cost of annuities. A vicious circle that cannot attract citizens to join.
Making public annuities a fixed long-term food to protect the whole people is a problem facing the pension reform. Whether to follow the compulsory participation system of Sweden and Singapore, and whether to subsidize the insurance of poor elderly are all issues that the government must consider.
In addition to the need to improve the annuity plan, the current government's MPF and welfare subsidy systems are all inadequate.
The MPF not only protects the insufficient population, but only covers about 80% of employees. The most important thing is that the nature of the MPF is not to "differentiate" risks and increase "protection" for the public, but to promote people with different financial management capabilities. Promote to the investment market.
The only real "protection" for retirement provided by the government is the elderly CSSA, old age allowance and elderly living allowance.
However, if the asset limit for the elderly CSSA application is too low, the scope of application is not large. Although the thresholds for the Old Age Allowance and the Elderly Living Allowance are relatively loose, the amount of subsidy is inefficient.
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The cost of living must be controlled
On the other hand, through the improvement of overall social welfare to reduce the cost of living, the elderly can also afford the necessary medical care and daily life even with limited income in their later years. However, the government obviously does not have this awareness.
It is quite difficult to find a piece of shingle in Hong Kong. Not only has the waiting time for public housing increased, but at the end of last year the government abandoned the "first-hand property vacancy tax" draft legislation.
Private hospitals have high prices and low quality. There are frequent scandals of elder abuse, and the number of deaths in public hospitals has reached a new high.
There are too many public medical doctors and one but one is hard to find, but private medical care is not affordable for everyone.
In Hong Kong, which has 800 billion fiscal reserves, the government has predicted that taking into account inflation and public transport fare increases, the two-dollar car discount for the elderly may be increased to three dollars in the future. It does not consider in the eyes of high-ranking officials in Hong Kong, where everything is expensive. A copper plate may be the last straw to crush the elderly.
It is one of the basic responsibilities of the government to allow the elderly to spend their twilight years. Therefore, the use of investment thinking and voluntary choice mode to operate elderly protection is contrary to its role as the bottom line of social welfare protection.
The government’s thinking should not limit the issue of elderly care to the provision of stable and sufficient income for the elderly. It is more important to realize that elderly care is a part of the overall social welfare. When the cost of medical care, housing, transportation and other rigid needs drops, the cost of living of the elderly Naturally, it can also be reduced, and their retirement life will be more easily protected.
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Retirement of Security for the Elderly, Mortgage for the Elderly, Public Pension, MPF, MPF, for the Elderly, Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, Elderly Living Allowance, Elderly 01 Viewpoint
