President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised to protect the nation’s pension system from going bankrupt for the next 30 years as he unveiled the government’s pension reform proposals yesterday, insisting that his administration would strengthen its communication with the legislative branch as it prepares to send the draft for approval in April.
Accompanied by Premier Sean Chen (陳冲), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Examination Yuan President John Kuan (關中) at a press conference to explain the government’s pension reforms, Ma said that he would give up his right to the 18 percent preferential interest rate on his retirement pension, which would be about NT$23,000 a month.
“The proposal is not perfect, but we’ve tried to make it a thorough one after gathering opinions. The pension system is everyone’s system and we cannot afford letting it collapse. People may receive less money after the reforms, but the revised pension system will assure that we receive our pension without having to worry for at least 30 years,” Ma said at the Presidential Office.
He described the nation’s current pension system first as a time bomb, then as a runaway train that is traveling toward a cliff, and said that it is a priority that the government reform the system immediately, else the Labor Insurance Fund and the retirement funds for the military, civil service and teachers would go bankrupt between 2019 and 2027.
“The pension system time bomb won’t explode during my term ... However, the train will definitely fall off the cliff if we don’t start building a bridge right now,” he said.
The proposed reforms are to be implemented in stages.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Kuan said the government would adopt a “rule of 90” system for civil servants in 2016, in which a civil servant can only retire if their age and years in service add up to 90.
For example, a civil servant who has reached the age of 60 and has accumulated 30 years of service would be eligible for retirement. Currently, civil servants can retire if their age and years in service add up to 85.
There would be a 10-year grace period for the new system, while civil servants in special fields, such as police officers and firefighters, would be excluded from the new system, he said.
In the future, the retirement pensions of civil servants should not exceed 80 percent of their final income, he said.
The government also plans to reduce the contentious preferential 18 percent interest rate on savings accounts held by retired civil servants to 9 percent within the next four to five years, he said, adding that civil servants who retired before July 1999 would not be affected by the change.
Kuan said the government would also establish a three-tier pension system for civil servants.
The first tier would be a national pension with a 15 percent contribution from gross salary, the second a mandatory occupational scheme with a 30 percent contribution and the third a non-mandatory commercial pension, also with a 30 percent contribution.
When asked about the growing disputes over the reforms and divisions in society, Ma insisted that the government has tried its best to design a pension system that would narrow the gap between those working in different industries.
He said the government would review the system every five years as it seeks to establish a modernized and systematic pension policy.
Both Ma and Wang dismissed concerns about opposition to the government’s reforms among lawmakers across party lines.
Ma insisted that the government would continue to communicate with lawmakers regarding the reforms, while Wang said that he would facilitate the legislation once it is sent to the legislature for approval in April.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS