Elderly social welfare system to be improved

The government will set in motion a decade-long action plan for establishing a Support System for the Aged in the second quarter of next year, the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) president, Iong Kong Io, has announced.
The bureau presented a draft framework of the Support System during a press conference last week, where it launched a 45-day public consultation in order to gather public opinion regarding the policy direction to address Macau’s “aged society,” which is approaching in the next ten years.
The framework indicated that Macau has entered an “ageing society” phase, with 8.4 percent of the population last year recorded to be 65 or older, above the threshold of 7 percent. When the percentage increases to 14 percent, the city will be seen as “aged.” And it is estimated to become “a super-aged society” by the year of 2036, with the numbers of people aged 65 or older exceeding 20 percent.
“Macau’s population expects a more rapid ageing, as it’s sand- wiched by the decline of the fertility rate and the extention of average life expectancy,” explained professor Alfred Chan, director of the Asia-Pacific Institute of Ageing Studies at Lingnan University, and also an advisor to the MSAR’s policy study.
Between 2007 and 2014, the expenses in distributing pensions grew ten times to MOP2.26 billion, and elderly subsidies grew by six times to MOP445 million. The IAS estimates that the combined expenditure will rise to MOP7.17 billion in 2036, not to mention the compounding medical and other service expenses.
“It will be more and more challenging for society to support the aged if it’s sorely relying on the pension system, because the legible beneficiaries of elderly welfare will continue to climb; and the expenses in medical care, community services and subsidies for elderly people will continue to grow,” stressed the professor.
“Meanwhile, Macau’s economic development and capital accumulation might be affected due to more elderly people’s retirement from the workforce,” he indicated. He added that the city will also face challenges in human and land resources brought on by future facility constructions and supply of services, while the youngsters will shoulder more of the burden as they are required to support their parents and possibly even their grandparents.
To counter this “inevitable trend,” the government set up a research group, ranging across 13 governmental departments, and plans to break down the issue into four categories, namely: the enhancement of medical services; protection of elderly people’s interests and rights; guarantee of elderly people’s social participation; and security of their living conditions.
The policy framework formulated by the group will therefore serve as instruction for the government’s future elderly services policy-making. According to Iong Kong Io, the public consultation result is expected to come out in the first quarter of next year, whereby each joint department will begin preparing in the following quarter for the launch of specific policies and measures.
The official further noted that tasks proposed in the framework that would cast a profound impact include: the cultivating of local healthcare manpower; development of specialist clinics for elderly treatment; establishment of a care system after treatment; increasing quotas for elderly homes and care services; the formation of guidelines for elderly courses; and the formulation of guidelines for accessibility and universal design.