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Letters | Hong Kong government must support all firms that hire elderly workers

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor meets the press at the Hong Kong government headquarters in Admiralty on May 19. Photo: Robert Ng
The Hong Kong government should be thankful to the firms that hire workers over the age of 65, which is a service to society. However, the government does not support such employers with wage subsidies under the Employment Support Scheme (ESS) if these senior citizens do not have a Mandatory Provident Fund account.

Why should the ESS not support firms that employ elderly workers?

Say a firm hired a 66-year-old in 2010 and that person is still in employment. The firm is ready to prove that: the employee has been with the firm for 10 years; the firm has paid their salary every month in that time and has proof monthly pay cheques were issued to the employee; it can show bank statements for the last 10 years proving those cheques were cashed; the employee can show they have sent salaries tax forms to the Inland Revenue Department for the last 10 years; and the firm can prove it informed the government for the last 10 years that it has employed a senior citizen and that the IRD could collect salaries tax from that employee.

In this case, why should the government not support this employer with ESS payments of HK$9,000 per month for six months? 

I know the Hong Kong government was considering how to provide ESS payments to employers and chose MPF as the basis, but I don’t understand why they should penalise firms employing people older than 65.

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I understand the government’s view that firms should not abuse the scheme, but for senior citizens, they could say the firm must have employed them for at least a year or two and that it should have enough support documents to claim ESS payment for staff older than 65.
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