KUCHING: The proposal to terminate the Public Service Pensions Scheme and introduce a contractual scheme may be a beneficial change.
Owner and managing director of Le Parlour Café Desmond Liew, 31, agreed with the termination of the scheme and the shift to a contractual scheme.
“This pension scheme has been practised for decades, its burden growing on our country. Retirees are no longer working, but they are still paid for long periods via their pensions,” Liew remarked.
He said that the government could perhaps consider collaborating to provide more incentives for retirees who opted for or were recruited under the contractual scheme.
“A retirement scheme can be designed to help them save for future usage. This will create a momentum and ensure all government servants would be more productive,” Liew stated.
He pointed out that to continue utilising the permanent pension scheme would create an eventual black hole whereby only youngsters are working, but the system would be covering their salaries as well as the pensions for retirees who are no longer contributing to the system.
Meanwhile, assistant manager of communications in the public sector office, Nurhadiatul Sukinah Jamali, 29, described the proposal as a win-win situation. However, she said that to change the Public Service Pensions Scheme, two things have to be considered.
“What will be the impact on people who do not have a pension, and what will be the outcome of taking back the pension scheme and applying a contract-only basis?”
“If the government really does implement this, it needs to come up with some sort of fund-saving scheme.
“We do not want them to have no savings at the end of their service,” said Nurhadiatul.
Life and financial advisor Cheryl Theresa Kueh, 23, felt that the new direction was worth trying out.
“I feel that if it eases the burden of the country’s expenses, then I am for it,” she said.
She believed these changes would
encourage civil servants to have their own personal retirement funds.
“In the long run, it will encourage the citizens to have better personal financial management,” stated Kueh.
Marketing consultant Sean Matjeraie, 26, was also in favour of the move towards a contractual system.
“The public service is currently very bloated and it is obvious that changes like this would be made to reduce the large budgets,” he remarked.
“However, I believe that it is important for the government to create an alternative of some sort to promote saving due to the current high cost of living in Malaysia,” sounded Matjeraie.
