FSS enforces automatic system for pension withdrawals

The Social Security Fund (FSS) has established a new measure that aims to facilitate the withdrawal of the Special Allocation from Budget Surplus beneficiaries.

From August 1, FSS Pension Beneficiaries aged 65 or older can register for an automatic transfer of the funds, which are normally deposited in their government accounts, into their private bank accounts instead.

The new measure was announced yesterday afternoon in a press conference by the Fund who noted that the provision aims to facilitate the processing of such payments, and reduce the need for multiple visits to service providers, thereby “reducing the waiting time for the processing of services to the elderly,” according to Head of Department of Central Provident Fund System, Ieong Iun Lai.

Ieong also noted that according to the Fund’s experience in previous years, “data shows that the majority of pensioners who submitted applications to withdraw the money are related to the participation from the government from that year.” In this way, the new system will employ self-use kiosks for the registration and activation of services. As the Head of Division of General Affairs of Provident Fund, Ho Hoi Sang, explained, “for the upcoming years, there will be no need for a new registration since the first registration will be permanently valid as long as the beneficiary fulfills requirements such as the Proof of Life.”

From August 1, citizens included in this system can go to any of the kiosks available in the various government service centers and register with their Macau Identification Card.

According to FSS, there are over 40 locations where the kiosks are available.

After registration, the kiosk will print a receipt and an SMS message will also be sent to the mobile phone number registered to the account, indicating that registration was completed successfully.

All the account owners who are at least 65 years old and are currently receiving an old-age or disability pension are eligible to register for this service.
In late August, FSS will automatically deposit the special allocation from the year’s budget surplus into the bank account where the account owner receives their old-age or disability pension.

According to Ho, “it is estimated that around 70,000 people will register to withdraw the funds every year.”

Meanwhile, according to data provided by the FSS during the press conference yesterday, the government’s participation in the FSS Special Allocation from Budget Surplus has reached a total of MOP25.6 billion.

Head of Division of General Affairs of Provident Fund, Ho Hoi Sang, noted that in the same period from 2010 to 2019, the total amount of funds withdrawn from the accounts was of MOP5.2 billion.

Analyzing the same statistics, Ho noted that year after year, the number of program beneficiaries has grown from 296,280 in 2010 to 373,362 in 2018.

This year has seen a drop in the number of beneficiaries by almost 2,000 people.

Questioned on the topic, the Head of Department of Central Provident Fund System, Ieong Iun Lai, explained that this year has not yet been processed and the figure may grow.

She explained that the drop is due to a large number of potential beneficiaries that, on first analysis, failed to comply with one of the major requirements, namely residence in the Macau SAR for at least 183 days per year.

In such cases, she said there are a total of around 15,000 people who have presented appeals that would make the figure “most likely to grow as they are processed.”