Critics accuse Hong Kong government of already deciding to opt for a means-tested scheme rather than a full-blown universal pension
Officials were served heated discussion on a cold day at the first meet-the-public session on retirement protection yesterday.
Boos, protests and insults were flung around the Leighton Community Hall in Happy Valley during Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s introduction and during the dialogue.
There were also protesters outside in the cold urging the government to consider a universal option, while others with loudspeakers countered it with pro-government chants.
Launched a month ago, the six-month consultation seems to have widened the rift instead of bringing consensus.
On the table are two options: a truly universal scheme in which every elderly person receives HK$3,000 a month regardless of income or assets and a means-tested scheme where those with assets of less than HK$80,000 would get such a monthly allowance.
The government’s explicit stand that it preferred the latter and had “reservations about the ‘regardless of rich or poor’ principle” of any universal retirement scheme has irked many.
