Lawmakers raised questions about the government's injection of HK$6,000 into low-income earners' MPF accounts, after reports of mistaken payments to people with incomes over the scheme's limit. The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority has received about 20 inquiries from Hongkongers wondering if their MPF accounts have been topped up by mistake. The authority insisted yesterday that no mistaken payments had been found, but it did not rule out the possibility, as it was unable to examine all 7 million MPF accounts individually to confirm eligibility. The one-off giveaway was announced in finance chief John Tsang Chun-wah's maiden budget last year. The government, he said, would inject HK$9 billion into the pension accounts of about 1.4 million workers whose monthly income was less than HK$10,000. A Chinese-language newspaper reported yesterday that two people - one with a monthly income of HK$30,000 and the other of HK$13,000 - had received written notification they had been paid under the programme. In a media briefing, authority chief operating officer Hendena Yu Hoi-ping said those workers were in fact eligible under the law - which says that monthly income had to be HK$10,000 or less in any one of the three months between December 2007 and February 2008. The workers had changed jobs during the three months, Ms Yu said, making their salaries in one of the months less than HK$10,000. Workers who took unpaid leave during the three months were also eligible. The Civic Party's Ronny Tong Ka-wah said it would be prohibitively expensive to assess all 7 million MPF accounts, but warned that the policy's original intent would be violated if more cases were revealed of people benefiting by changing jobs. 'I hope there will not be too many similar cases, otherwise this is obviously against the policy, which was to give cash assistance only to low- income earners,' he said. Unionist lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said he did not expect many people to benefit through changing jobs during the period. But he urged the authority to come up with a figure and tell the public how many did receive payments for that reason. Ms Yu said the authority would monitor the situation by conducting random checks on the accounts deemed eligible. 'The MPFA is empowered by the law to withdraw the HK$6,000 in case of mistaken payments,' she said. As for the recent inquiries from the public, Ms Yu said many of the callers had misunderstood the eligibility criteria for the scheme. Even so, investigations were continuing into the cases reported as mistakes. Who gets the top-up Employees in the MPF or other retirement schemes who earned HK$10,000 or less in December 2007, January 2008 or February 2008 Self-employed workers whose average monthly income between December 2007 and February 2008 was HK$10,000 or less Casual workers paying into the MPF whose average monthly income in the 12 months to February 29, 2008, was HK$10,000 or less Employed or self-employed people who held preserved MPF accounts in the year to February 29, 2008, and whose income in any one of the last three months they were in work in the period was HK$10,000 or less (people may open preserved accounts if they switch jobs or retire before 65)
