The government announced yesterday that 71,591 senior citizens will have the money from this year’s cash injection into their Central Provident Fund accounts automatically transferred to their bank accounts on September 25, without having to apply for the transfer.
The government did not inject its handout into the Central Provident Fund accounts of eligible permanent local residents in 2021, 2022 and 2023 because of its respective previous-year deficit budgets during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected Macau from early 2020 through 2022.
This year, the government will again pay out its annual 7,000-pataca Central Provident Fund handouts.
The Social Security Fund (FSS), which is headquartered at China Civil Plaza in Nape, announced details of this year’s Central Provident Fund handouts during a press conference yesterday in a Government Information Bureau (GCS) pressroom at China Plaza in Nam Van.
According to the current Non-mandatory Central Provident Fund system, permanent local residents aged at least 22 who stay in Macau for at least 183 days a year are eligible to receive the government’s cash injection into their Central Provident Fund accounts in the subsequent year.
The annual cash payments are officially known as extraordinary budget surplus allotments.
According to the current law on the Non-mandatory Central Provident Fund system, those not staying in Macau because of certain special reasons can be officially regarded as actually having stayed in Macau, such as studying for a degree, hospitalisation, seniors aged at least 65 living in the mainland, those working outside Macau because of the need to support their family members in Macau, and those under 65 living in the mainland because of the need to receive non-hospital care, palliative care or rehabilitation there.
According to the law, those who are unable to stay in Macau for humanitarian reasons or “other duly substantiated reasons” can also be regarded as actually staying in Macau. The government rolled out a new measure earlier this year according to which “other duly substantiated reasons” now also include those who began living in the Guangdong-Macau In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin on or after March 1 last year.
During yesterday’s press conference, FSS Vice President Chan Pou Wan said that 389,346 are included in the government’s list of permanent residents who are eligible to receive this year’s cash injection into their Central Provident Fund accounts, i.e., those who reached the age of 22 by the end of last year and stayed in Macau for at least 183 days last year.
The full name list can be checked on the fund’s website or via the government’s Macao One Account e-service platform from today.
According to yesterday’s FSS statement, 183,181 are not included in the list due to failing to meet the 183-day requirement. Those who have not been added to the list but meet the various special reasons mentioned above can submit their applications to the fund requesting that they be officially regarded as staying in Macau so that they will be newly added to the list and receive this year’s cash injection – if approved.
Chan said yesterday that the ones who have been added to this year’s list include 93,314 senior citizens aged at least 65, adding that 71,591 of them will have their 7,000-pataca handouts automatically transferred to their bank accounts on September 25.
Schedule
The government rolled out its measure several years ago allowing senior citizens aged at least 65 to automatically receive the annual payments in their bank accounts without having to apply for the transfer every year. They have to register in order to benefit from the measure.
Other senior citizens who did not register for the measure before will continue to be required to apply for the transfer of the 7,000-pataca handouts into their bank accounts. According to yesterday’s press conference, they can start to apply for the handout transfer on August 1. Those who apply for the transfer in August via the government’s Macao One Account e-service or self-service kiosks will also receive their handouts in their bank accounts on September 25, while whose who submit their applications in September via Macao One Account or self-service kiosks will receive their handouts in their bank accounts on October 23.
Those who apply for the transfer by submitting written application forms, regardless of filing in their applications in August or September, will also only receive the money on October 23.
According to the law, those who become eligible to receive the government’s annual cash injection for the first time will receive a one-off injection of 10,000 patacas into their Central Provident Fund accounts. Chan said yesterday that 9,178 residents will receive the 10,000-pataca injection.
Consequently, Chan said, the government expects to spend 2.8 billion patacas on injecting the 7,000-pataca handouts into the accounts of 389,346 beneficiaries and the 10,000-pataca one-off injection into the accounts of 9,178 beneficiaries.
Social Security Fund (FSS) Vice President Chan Pou Wan (centre) speaks during yesterday’s press conference at China Plaza in Nam Van, as Ieong Un Lai (left), who heads the fund’s Central Provident Fund System Department, and Ho Hoi Sang, who heads the fund’s Provident Fund System General Affairs Division, look on. – Photo: Tony Wong
