Retired military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers should accept benefit cuts for the sake of generational justice, New Power Party (NPP) legislators said yesterday, calling for an equal replacement ratio for national pensions.
“There will necessarily be pain and the sacrifice of some vested interests as part of pension reform, but the sacrifices are not for the benefit of any particular group — they are for our next generation and our nation’s future,” NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said, adding that excessively high income replacement ratios for former government employees were the primary source of “hidden debt” increasing the pressure on the budget.
The nation’s pension system is a complicated web of different funds and guarantees, which have gradually accrued to workers in different sectors with former government employees generally enjoying more generous coverage.
Chang said that former government employees with different pension systems receive pensions that are equal to between 70 and 100 percent of their former salaries, adding that “generational justice” requires that the government refuse assuming responsibility for meeting pension fund obligations after various funds go bankrupt.
“At a time when the nation’s finances face collapse unless reforms are enacted, talking about protecting vested interests is meaningless,” he said, “The government taking responsibility to meet the obligations would effectively shift the debts of this generation to the next.”
There is room for discussion on the precise legal definition of different government pension promises, along with the extent the promises could be constitutionally altered via legislation, he said.
In principle, any pension reform should adjust pension replacement ratios to make their underlying formulas equal across all sectors and occupations, he said, adding that his party would propose specific legislation after the Presidential Office’s pension reform commission makes its final recommendations next year.
Any pension reform plan should be equitable, guarantee a universal minimum pension and respect generational justice, while ensuring the system’s sustainability, NPP legislative caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said.
He criticized a protest planned for tomorrow by retired government personnel for failing to outline a clear reform plan, accusing demonstrators of using the differences across occupations to obscure the importance of pension reform.
The NPP’s electoral platform last year called for canceling all non-pension benefits for government personnel while increasing their pension contributions and capping replacement ratios at between 60 and 70 percent.
The party also proposed transitioning to a “pay-as-you-go” pension system to replace the current pension system, which would serve as a “pool” for contributions from workers in different sectors.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS