LCQ22: Early withdrawal of Mandatory Provident Fund accrued benefits
26.6.2019

Following is a question by the Hon James To and a written reply by the Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Mr James Lau, in the Legislative Council today (June 26): Question: Under the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (Cap. 485), Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme members may withdraw their accrued benefits early under specified circumstances (such as early retirement, permanent departure from Hong Kong and terminal illness). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (1) of the following figures on early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits under each specified circumstance in each year between 2015 and 2018: (i) the respective numbers of applications received, approved and rejected by the trustees, (ii) the average age of the applicants, (iii) the total amount of accrued benefits in the approved cases, and (iv) the highest, lowest and average amounts of accrued benefits in the approved cases; and (2) as the aforesaid ordinance stipulates that a member with a "terminal illness" means the member "has an illness that is likely to reduce the life expectancy of the member to 12 months or less", but that definition depends on the subjective estimations by individual doctors on the life expectancy of their patients, whether the Government will formulate a more objective and less stringent definition for "terminal illness", such as setting out, in the form of a table in respect of the various death-causing illnesses, the specific stage(s) for each illness to be regarded as terminal illness? Reply: President, (1) (i) The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) started collecting from MPF trustees the number of claims processed by them for early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits on various grounds since 2016. From 2016 to 2018, the numbers of claims for early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits on various grounds processed by MPF trustees are as follows: Year Early Retirement Permanent Departure from Hong Kong Total Incapacity Terminal Illness Small Balance Death 2016 22 100 32 700 2 100 900 300 6 700 2017 23 400 36 500 2 200 900 200 7 800 2018 20 800 33 800 1 800 800 100 7 100 Note: The figures above are rounded to the nearest hundredth The MPFA has not collected from MPF trustees the number of rejected claims for early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits on various grounds. (ii) The MPFA only maintains record of the average age of MPF scheme members who withdrew MPF accrued benefits on ground of permanent departure from Hong Kong. The average age of scheme members who withdrew MPF accrued benefits on ground of permanent departure from Hong Kong is as follows: Year Average age of scheme members who withdrew MPF on ground of permanent departure from Hong Kong 2015 40 2016 40 2017 40 2018 41 (iii) From 2015 to 2018, the total amount involved in the claims processed by MPF trustees each year for early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits on various grounds are as follows: (HK$ million) Year Early Retirement Permanent Departure from Hong Kong Total Incapacity Terminal Illness Note (2) Small Balance Death Total 2015 Note (1) 3,528 172 28 1 505 Note (1) 2016 1,859 3,323 157 86 1 502 5,928 2017 2,703 4,573 203 106 1 706 8,291 2018 2,682 4,792 211 114 Note (3) 689 8,489 Notes: (1) Before 2016, the MPFA did not collect from MPF trustees the figures relating to early withdrawal of MPF benefits on ground of early retirement (2) "Terminal illness" has been included as one of the grounds for early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits since August 2015 (3) Less than HK$0.5 million (iv) The MPFA started collecting from MPF trustees the number of claims processed by them for early withdrawal of accrued benefits on various grounds since 2016. From 2016 to 2018, the average amounts of MPF accrued benefits withdrawn early by MPF scheme members on various grounds are as follows: (HK$) Year Early Retirement Permanent Departure from Hong Kong Total Incapacity Terminal Illness Small Balance Death 2016 84,100 101,700 75,500 91,000 2,600 74,900 2017 115,500 125,200 92,100 115,000 2,600 91,000 2018 128,900 141,700 117,400 136,300 2,700 97,000 The MPFA does not have information on the highest and lowest amounts of early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits on various grounds. (2) According to the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes (General) Regulation (Cap. 485A), if a registered medical practitioner or registered Chinese medicine practitioner is of the opinion that a scheme member has any illness that is likely to reduce the member's life expectancy to 12 months or less, and issues a medical certificate to the member, the member may lodge a claim for early withdrawal of MPF benefits on ground of "terminal illness". The definition of "terminal illness", as well as the approach to certify one's remaining life expectancy, is formulated after taking into account the views received from respondents (especially medical practitioners) during the consultation exercise in relation to the adding of "terminal illness" as one of the grounds for early withdrawal of MPF accrued benefits. As a result of medical advances, many serious illnesses previously considered as incurable may soon become curable with the development of new drugs or medical treatments. Moreover, the health conditions may vary from person to person even if they suffer from the same illness. As such, it would be difficult to generalise in the form of a table different kinds of terminal illnesses. The government is of the view that the existing definition could better facilitate scheme members and medical practitioners in handling various cases in a practical manner. As such, the government currently has no plans to amend the definition of "terminal illness".