Labor Pension Act draft submitted to Legislative Yuan

SAVE it OR SPEND:Proposed changes to the pension act would see those with 15 years service have a choice over how retirement funds are issued

By Jonathan Chin  /  Staff writer, with CNA

The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that its draft amendments to the Labor Pension Act (勞工退休金條例) have been submitted to the Legislative Yuan.

According to the Executive Yuan, the amendments to the Labor Pension Act would allow a worker whose seniority exceeds 15 years to choose either drawing from a monthly pension plan, or to receive their entire pension in a lump-sum payment.

The draft states that once the method of payment chosen by the worker is approved by the Bureau of Labor Insurance, it would become permanent and not subject to change.

The current version of the Labor Pension Act states that a worker of 60 years of age or older and whose seniority exceeds 15 years must claim a monthly pension.

The Ministry of Labor said that the proposed changes reflect feedback to the ministry which said that workers should be able to choose a monthly or lump-sum payment so as to better adapt their pensions to meet individual needs, especially since the National Labor Insurance (勞保) already made available an annual allowance.

However, according to the draft amendments, an employee with less than 15 years of seniority would still be obliged to claim a lump-sum pension payment.

The ministry said that it had dropped plans for the “longevity pension insurance,” an insurance plan to provide a pension when a person exceed the age of the national life expectancy.

“The [provisional] insurance for citizens of advanced age might not have a sufficient number of enrollments,” Deputy Minister of Labor Chen I-min (陳益民) said.

“In light of the difficulties in financing the insurance, and multiple pre-existing coverage from the national labor insurance, the relevant articles [of the longevity pension insurance] were omitted [in the final proposal],” Chen said.