Hong Kong’s public annuity scheme: are the elderly being short-changed?

I refer to “Low returns and gender issue cloud annuity scheme” (July 10) and “No bang for their buck” (July 12). These headlines say it all.

Where have our monetary officials been for the past year? Don’t they realise gender equality has become a defining issue for society worldwide? There is no reason to mimic the insurance standard for individual clients in this community-wide scheme: the return should be averaged and the same for both men and women.

The annuity return is measly. The initial capital, without any investment income, would cover 15 years of payments. So, starting at age 65, that takes us to 80 years old.

We understand that our bureaucrats at the Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation are no investment geniuses in the mould of Warren Buffett, but even they should be able to obtain a return of at least 4 per cent on capital. This raises the serious question: is our government trying to short-change our old people?