The Social Security Fund (FSS) said yesterday that about 54,000 senior citizens will have the money from the government’s annual cash injection into their Central Provident Fund accounts transferred into their bank accounts on August 21.
The 54,000 senior citizens are those who are eligible to receive this year’s cash injection and had registered for a new measure which was rolled out last year allowing them to automatically receive the annual payments in their bank accounts, starting from this year, without having to apply for the transfer every year.
Some 20,000 other residents are eligible to receive this year’s cash injection, comprising 1) senior citizens who did not register for the new measure last year, and 2) those who are not senior citizens but are eligible for this year’s cash injection due to various kinds of special reasons. They will have the money transferred into their bank accounts on October 21, provided that they apply for the transfer between next month and September.
The Social Security Fund, which is headquartered on the 18th floor of China Civil Plaza in Nape, made the announcement during a press conference in a pressroom on the 19th floor of the building, where a number of service counters run by the Macau Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM) are located.
In 2010, the government started to deposit 6,000 patacas into the Central Provident Fund accounts of eligible permanent residents every year. The amount was raised to the current amount of 7,000 patacas in 2014.
The government opens a Central Provident Fund account for every local resident aged at least 18. The system of local residents’ Central Provident Fund accounts was initially regulated by a now-defunct law which came into force in 2012, which was replaced by the current law on the Non-mandatory Central Provident Fund system.
The city’s Non-mandatory Central Provident Fund system was implemented on January 1, 2018.
According to the law, permanent local residents aged at least 22 who stay in Macau for at least 183 days a year are eligible to receive the annual amount injected by the government into their Central Provident Fund accounts. The annual cash injections are officially known as extraordinary budget surplus allotments.
The Social Security Fund announces in June every year a list of permanent residents who are eligible to receive the annual cash injection for the particular year – i.e. those who reached the age of 22 by the end of the previous year and stayed in Macau for at least 183 days in the previous year.
Before the new measure, residents aged at least 65 who had been added to the annually updated list could apply to withdraw the annual cash injection for that year, and after the Social Security Fund approved the respective applications, the money was then deposited into their bank accounts.
Ieong Un Lai (right), who heads the Central Provident Fund System Department of the Social Security Fund (FSS), address yesterday’s press conference at China Civil Plaza in Nape, as Ho Hoi Sang, who heads the Provident Fund System General Affairs Division of Ieong’s department, listens to a reporter’s question. Photo: Tony Wong
