Universal retirement protection proposal: HK$3,000 seed fund per person, then monthly contributions

On 6 December 2011, an alliance campaigning for universal retirement protection put forward a new proposal: the government would seed the scheme with HK$3,000 per person, with citizens contributing monthly thereafter — possibly deducted from MPF contributions. Calls for universal retirement protection were growing louder, against a backdrop of high MPF administration fees and fund losses from the financial tsunami that left many retirees with only just over HK$100,000 in MPF savings — not enough to live on.

What was the group’s universal retirement protection proposal?

In December 2011, the alliance proposed that the government provide a HK$3,000 seed fund per person, followed by monthly citizen contributions — possibly deducted from MPF contributions — with a 1% profits-tax levy on large corporations as a possible subsidy; a 2.5%-per-month employee-employer contribution ratio was floated for public discussion.

The case behind it

The group’s officer noted that Hong Kong’s elderly poverty rate was among the world’s highest, with one in three elderly people living in poverty, and argued the government’s three pillars — MPF, personal savings and social security assistance — were not enough. The alliance urged the Central Policy Unit to publish its earlier research on universal retirement protection and called on chief executive election candidates to respond concretely to the proposal.