Mandatory Provident Fund bosses are proposing to let terminally ill patients of working age withdraw money from their pension accounts.
They also propose letting retirees withdraw their funds by instalment rather than in one go.
The changes, if approved, would be the first significant ones since the MPF scheme was launched in 2000. They were put out for public consultation yesterday.
The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority suggests that people certified by doctors as terminally ill and expected to live only six months to a year be allowed to withdraw their MPF benefits early.
Unionist legislator Lee Cheuk-yan welcomed the proposal but said it did not go far enough.
'Those with a serious or chronic illness that prevents them from working should also be allowed to withdraw their MPF benefits,' he said.