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carry his account with him on changing employment. There is nothing new in this but it may be a useful presentational point.
(c) Sickness Benefit: The 36 sickness days allowed
under the Employment Ordinance is a maximum entitlement based on years of service. A worker would only qualify for this amount after three years' continuous service, at a rate of one sickness day for each completed month of service. We have decided that there should be a clear date for sickness benefit under the voluntary contributory scheme and that, for administrative simplicity, this should begin from the second calendar month of sickness, i.e. that there should be a waiting period of 30 days. There is a similar waiting period for able-bodied unemployed adults under the public assistance scheme. We note your advice that the benefit could be extended by another two months, however, in view of all the uncertainties, we feel that a cautious approach would be advisable. Accordingly, we propose to start with three months' benefit and to increase it later if funds are available.
*
(a) Death Benefit:
We are not clear whether the death benefit of six months' pay is
payable in full without deduction for other benefits received under the scheme. We assume that this must be so. We consider that death benefit should be payable if membership were frozen but the contributor's funds have not been withdrawn (e.g. during the period of notice of withdrawal from the Scheme). We also feel that, apart from a minimum 6 months benefit payable after the normal waiting period of 6 months after entry, re-entry, this benefit should increase with the period of contribution up to a maximum of 12 months.
(e) No Claim Bonus: We accept that a no claim bonus
would be contrary to the objects of a social insurance scheme and do not press for this.
(f) Return of Contributions:
(g)
It is proposed that an employee may choose to withdraw at any time or on reaching the age of 60. In the light of your advice, he would receive back his own contribution plus interest. We suggest that three months notice of withdrawal must be given.
Retirement Benefit: This is not a main feature
of our scheme. In essence, at least in the initial stages, the employee will only get back his own contribution plus interest. In effect, this would constitute a form of enforced savings. To avoid misleading the public, it would probably be best not to emphasize the
/"retirement"