More than 80 percent of those who have joined the two-year-old "portable pension" system would like to have a say in how their reserve funds are used for profit-making, the results of an opinion survey showed.
The survey, released yesterday, was conducted by the Securities Investment Trust and Consulting Association in cooperation with the Chinese-language monthly magazine Global View between March 23 and April 1 to explore local wage earners' knowledge of and opinions about the relatively new portable pension system. A total of 1,002 valid samples were collected in the survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Among the respondents, 44.5 percent said they were very supportive of revising the law to allow wage earners to influence the use of portable pension fund reserves for lucrative investment deals; 36.1 percent said they partially supported revising the law; 16.2 percent did not support revising the law.
The survey said that the number of wage earners who have opted for the portable pension system reached 5.64 million as of last Wednesday, with the total pension fund reserves accumulated under the scheme exceeding NT$140.7 billion (US$4.26 billion). Moreover, the amount of reserves has been increasing by approximately NT$8 billion per month.
After more than a year of delay, the Legislative Yuan finally passed a statute on managing and supervising pension fund reserves earlier this year.
However, the survey found that 65 percent of the respondents were not aware that only the government is authorized to manage the pension funds and that pensioners are guaranteed a minimum profit equivalent to the interest rate for two-year deposits at local banks.
If the fund's earnings do not reach that level, the government is required by the statute to pay the difference at the expense of taxpayers.
A spokesman for the securities association said the survey results indicated that the government should step up a publicity campaign to help wage earners better understand how the portable pension system operates as well as their rights under the scheme.
The survey found that 68 percent of respondents were not confident of the government's capabilities in managing pension funds, while nearly 80 percent said it was inappropriate to use taxpayers' money to pay the difference if the fund's earnings fall below the set minimum.
Meanwhile, 74 percent said they are willing to accept the consequences if they are allowed to choose investment targets for their pension funds.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents expressed confidence in their own ability to make investment decisions.
Noting that many advanced countries allow wage earners to choose the investment targets for their own pension funds, the association spokesman said the government should submit to public opinion by drafting a revision to the law governing pension funds.
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