HONG KONG PENSIONS
The Ritish Government has acknowledged (e.g. in Colonial No. 306 paragraph 6) that it has special responsibility for and obligations towards overseas pensioners and members of Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service. In fulfilment of these special responsibilities and obligations in respect of service in Hong Kong, the Overseas Service Pensioners' Association urges the British Government not to wait until nearer 1997 but to take early action to stabilize and secure the sterling value of overseas basic pensions payable by the Hong Kong Government. and to establish a firm sterling base value for those pensions on which all future calculations of the British Supplementary Pension for Overseas Service (SPOS) are made, thus eliminating the present unsatisfactory "lottery" system under which, for the SPOS purposes, the sterling value of the basic pension is established by using the rate of exchange ruling on the last day of service.
2. It should be explained that Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service and similar overseas officers receive two pensions:-
(a) a basic pension granted by the Colonial Government; (b) a Supplementary Pension for Overseas Service (SPOS)
granted by the British Government.
Basic Pension
and,
3. The traditional British Colonial constitutional practice has been, and still is for the remaining Colonies, that the pensions of all categories of former officers (both local and overseas) are granted in accordance with the pensions legislation of the territory concerned and are calculated in the currency of that territory. However, as stated earlier, the British Government has recognised and given formal undertakings that it has special responsibilities towards officers of H.M.O.C.S and similar categories of overseas officers (and to their widows and orphans), and to them as pensioners when they retire. As long as a Colony remains of purely colonial status with the Secretary of State having ultimate control over, inter alia, pensions matters, the British Government can fulfill these special responsibilities. But as a Colony approaches independence and the Secretary of State's powers in this respect have been weakened by, for example, the Public Service Commission becoming executive and/or the Governor no longer having, or if haring, no longer in practice being able to wield, reserve powers
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