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The following is issued on behalf of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority:
The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) today (February 20) described the detailed arrangement for the Government's injection of $6,000 into the MPF accounts of MPF/ORSO scheme members after the Legislative Council's Finance Committee approved the Government's funding application of $9 billion for the injection this afternoon.
Eligible scheme members will receive the injection in batches via the 17 trustees in March and April. It is estimated that about 1.404 million scheme members are eligible to receive the injection. The trustees concerned will send a written notification to each eligible member after the injection has been made to the relevant MPF account. For eligible ORSO scheme members who do not have any MPF accounts, the MPFA will in March notify the scheme members and the trustees concerned will set up MPF preserved accounts for the scheme members to receive the injection.
An MPFA spokesperson said: "An Injection Hotline will be made available in April for scheme members who have not received the written notification to make enquiries or request a review. Any review request should be made with the MPFA between April and September 30. Details of the Injection Hotline will be announced later. Scheme members need not enquire about their own cases at this stage. The MPFA will inform the public of the injection arrangement in detail via the media next week."
Please refer to Annex 1 for eligibility criteria.
Review/Appeal Mechanism
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The spokesperson pointed out that starting from April, any scheme members who wish to review their eligibility for injection can lodge their requests by calling the Injection Hotline, visiting the MPFA Kwun Tong Office in person or sending requests in writing to the MPFA. The requests should be made between April and September 30. A person who has made a request for review will be notified of the review result by the MPFA in writing. If a person is not satisfied with the MPFA's review decision, he/she should lodge an appeal within three weeks after a written notification of the MPFA's review decision is issued. Any late submission of an appeal request will not be considered.
"All appeals will be handled by an appeal panel chaired by the Chairman of the MPF Schemes Advisory Committee and comprising non-executive directors of the MPFA. The appeal panel will review the decision having regard to all of the information provided by the appellant and the findings of the MPFA's investigation. The individual will be notified of the outcome of the appeal in writing. The decision of the appeal panel will be final," the spokesperson said.
Injection Arrangement
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MPF Scheme Members
- The MPFA will inject the contributions into eligible members' MPF preserved accounts if members possess such accounts.
- If members do not possess MPF preserved accounts but only have MPF contribution accounts, the contributions will be injected into their contribution accounts.
- For members who have withdrawn their accrued benefits on statutory grounds and closed their MPF accounts (except on the ground of small account balance), the contributions will be paid by cheque or bank transfer.
- If members have withdrawn their accrued benefits on the ground of small account balance and closed their MPF accounts, the trustees concerned will set up MPF preserved accounts for them to receive the injection.
ORSO Scheme Members
As the contributions will be injected into MPF accounts of eligible scheme members, for eligible ORSO scheme members who do not have any MPF accounts, the trustees concerned will set up MPF preserved accounts for them to receive the injection. The MPFA will separately send a letter and a publicity leaflet to each eligible ORSO scheme member concerned in March explaining to him/her how to set up the preserved account. Scheme members are advised to study the documents thoroughly, and return the completed MPF preserved account application/enrolment form to the trustees concerned by March 31, to set up the MPF preserved account.
Please refer to Annex 2 for payment arrangement.
The MPFA will roll out an extensive publicity programme starting from next week through advertisements, newspaper articles, Announcements in the Public Interest (APIs) etc to inform the public of the details of the injection exercise. Scheme members are reminded to take note of the announcements and information. Scheme members can also get the relevant information from the MPFA's designated webpage (www.mpfa.org.hk).
Ends/Friday, February 20, 2009
Issued at HKT 18:12
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