New proposal to allow terminal patients to withdraw MPF funds - only one year before death
Dying people should be able to withdraw their Mandatory Provident Fund savings more than 12 months before their projected death, the government has been told.
Proposed changes to the MPF ordinance would allow terminally ill people to withdraw their money upon providing medical documents showing they have only a year to live.
But Confederation of Trade Unions policy researcher Poon Man-hon said the requirement proposed by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau was "too stringent".
"We think the bureau should consider following many insurance companies' policies on people with serious diseases or disabilities, to allow them to withdraw their accrued benefits earlier," he said at a meeting of a Legislative Council bills committee studying the changes.
Poon said this could allow such people to use the money for medical care and other expenses.
But Eddie Cheung Kwok-choi, deputy secretary for financial services and the treasury, said the bureau made the decision after discussing it with doctors, who agreed that it would be scientifically difficult to give a life expectancy longer than a year. Australia had a similar scheme set at one year, Cheung said.
In other changes, the bureau proposes to allow retirees to withdraw their money in up to 12 annual instalments of any amount they want without having to pay any extra fee.
Interest groups at the meeting agreed with Poon's stance.
They also agreed on other suggestions, such as allowing disabled people to withdraw their money earlier, merging small and low-profit funds and imposing tougher penalties on employees who breach MPF rules.
Cheung said disabled people who had completely lost self-sustainability were already allowed to withdraw their money earlier.
He also suggested that people with multiple MPF accounts should merge the accounts to reduce management fees.
