Mr Murray
जु
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
CONFIDENTIAL
HONG KONG: SOCIAL SECURITY
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INDEX
MAR 1978
Am Stewart
to us sup
No
201ü
Jacks
The Governor of Hong Kong has replied to Mr Murray's letter of encouragement on social security developments. The Overseas Labour Adviser has also produced a report of his visit to Hong Kong
where he has been examining Hong Kong's social progress. The Minister of State is holding a meeting with Messrs Cortazzi, Hurst Murray and myself on 15 March to discuss the minutes of the Hong Kong Monitoring Committee held on 23 February and, in particular, social security in Hong Kong.
2. Sir Murray has welcomed the British Government's support for the Green Paper proposals, but he has stressed that careful consideration needs to be given to the actuarial calculations on which a social benefit scheme would be based. At Hong Kong's request the Government Actuary's Department have sent them an assessment of their proposals.
3.
The Actuary's assessment questions many aspects of the proposed Sickness, Injury and Death Benefit Scheme. In particular, it advises against allowing both employers and employees to contract in or out of the Scheme. Difficulties would be caused by competition from private schemes, by employees changing jobs with a different scheme, and by the need for more administration and supervision. Furthermore, it states that the Scheme is in any case a "modest one", and employers could still run additional schemes.
4. Since all the necessary information was not available, the Actuary's Department, when considering the costing of the Scheme, have had to make a number of assumptions on the number and propor- tion of age groups likely to join, and the probable incidence of sickness. Largely for these reasons, they argue that benefits should not be increased at present, but that the duration of payments could be extended.
CONFIDENTIAL
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