OpinionI'll say it again: payout for all elderly is lunacy

Public Eye has never wavered from speaking out for Hong Kong's needy.

Time and again we have mocked our overpaid bureaucrats for ignoring the obscene income disparity. We have asked how they can justify being the second-highest-paid in the world when so many Hongkongers live in poverty, the air is unfit to breathe, and homes are so unaffordable that people live in subdivided slum flats. But Public Eye will state again: it is idiocy for legislators to insist we hand out taxpayers' money to everyone aged 70 and above - poor or rich.

It's lunatic logic to argue that the only way to help the elderly poor is by putting HK$2,200 every month into the pockets of even seniors who don't need it. The legislators say rich seniors won't bother to collect. Wanna bet? Thousands of middle-class seniors would.

Let's be honest; how many of you can say, hand on heart, that you didn't claim last year's HK$6,000 government handout because you didn't need the money?

Public Eye has yet to hear a logical argument that to help the elderly poor we must give all senior residents money. The legislators are pushing this lunacy so as to buy popularity. But by politicising a straightforward plan to help the needy they are tying a huge mortgage round the necks of future generations that would end up paying out more billions as our population ages.

Our legislators need to understand that an old-age allowance of HK$2,200 is not a substitute for a universal pension plan. Fight for a pension plan by all means. Give the government hell for having done virtually nothing to help retirees. But don't use a blunt instrument that also gives money to those who don't need it.