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But they may also raise:
- the rules governing the payment of UK Supplementary
Pension for Overseas Service (SPOS)
-
assurances that HMG would take over pensions over HMOCS
members should the SARG fail to pay them
-
the Limited Compensation Scheme for officers who are required to retire or are passed over for promotion due to
localisation
Sterling Safeguards
3. One of OSPA's main concerns is to obtain a sterling
safeguard for the value of the basic pension of HMOCs
members who served in Hong Kong. As most HMOCS members
retire to the UK, OSPA are concerned that the sterling value of their pensions (which are paid by the Hong Kong Government in Hong Kong Dollars) vary each month according
to fluctuations in the sterling/Hong Kong dollar exchange
rate. Those who retired five years ago, when sterling was
weak and the £/HK$ exchange rate was 8:1, feel hard done by
now that the rate has fallen to 14.5:1 (a historic low) with
the result that the sterling value of their pensions has
almost halved. They are also concerned that in the longer
term, the value of their pensions could be more seriously
eroded if the Hong Kong economy faced serious difficulties
in the run up to 1997 and the Hong Kong Government was
forced to delink the Hong Kong Dollar from the US Dollar.
4. In the case of other Dependent Territories, a sterling
safeguard has almost always been part of the Public Officers
Agreement (POA) negotiated with the successor government to
safeguard the terms of service for HMOCS members after independence. These POAS stipulated that pensions
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