Teacher pension benefits ‘will not be affected by review’

Education authorities have assured teachers their pension benefits will remain intact amid speculation the government intends to amend the law to prevent them from withdrawing the money early for emigration purposes.

The Education Bureau yesterday urged teachers not to be “misled by the rumours”.

At the centre of the issue is a recent job posting by the bureau seeking a legal officer to review the rules of the existing provident fund schemes for grant schools and other subsidised ones.

The hire is also expected to “provide legal advice on the enhancement or amendment” of the rules and “to prepare and draw up the report including recommendations of the review”, according to the advertisement.

The non-civil service post is for six months and pays HK$50,530 a month. Applications will close on May 10.

But the advert sparked speculation among teachers that the government would seek to ban early withdrawal of their pensions to stop the exodus of educators, many of whom reportedly sought to move overseas.

“So, people were saying that [the government] would touch the provident fund thing,” one Facebook post said. “It seems they have done the preparatory work and now only hire an executioner.”

Another post read: “They meddle [with] the provident fund at last.”

In a written reply to the Post last night, a bureau spokesman said the recruitment was to study the possible legal amendments that would be needed when the so-called offsetting mechanism of the Mandatory Provident Fund scheme was abolished.

The mechanism, a bone of contention among employees, allows employers to take cash from workers’ pension funds to offset severance and long-service payments, or when staff are sacked or the company has closed down. The government plans to abolish it and offer subsidies to help employers make the relevant payments.

“In view of the complexity of the relevant arrangements and that it would involve a lot of legal issues, the bureau is hiring a legal officer to help … ensure the revised rules will be in compliance with the ... relevant legislation,” the spokesman said.

“The move is to ensure employees have sufficient protection and it will not affect the benefits of employees under the current pension system.

“As for rumours circulated online ... that allege that the bureau wants to revise the terms of pension schemes so as to disallow teachers to take the pension sooner, the bureau would like to clarify that it has absolutely nothing to do with it. We also ask teachers not to be misled by rumours.”

There have been reports of an exodus of teachers in recent years. The now-defunct Professional

Teachers Union polled its members last year and found that some 40 per cent were considering leaving their jobs.

Government figures showed 5,270 teachers left their posts in the 2020-21 academic year, up from 3,440 in 2019-20.

In the latest Subsidised Schools Provident Fund annual report, 2,125 teachers of government-subsidised schools, many under retirement age, withdrew a total of HK$6.8 billion of provident fund contributions in the 2020-2021 school year on grounds of resignation or retirement.

Vu Im-fan, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Subsidised Primary Schools Council and member of the board of control of the Subsidised Schools Provident Fund, said she had not heard the bureau would take on the review.

Lau Chun-hung, chairman of the Hong Kong Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, said he was aware of the speculation in the school sector and noted that amending the fund regulation would involve many procedures.