Accommodation and Rental Assistance to Expatriate Officers is an element of our contract, “[to] be adjusted to reflect market conditions in Hong Kong”, although the specifics are indeed detailed in ARAP policy.
As such they would have a legal fight on their hands if they simply slashed that one aspect of our contracts after over fifteen years of precedent. If it were that easy they would have done it a long time ago.
Cuts and pain are coming one way or another, whether it be more SLS, LIFO, or even people on COS99/08/ARAP simply being “invited“ to leave in favour of cheaper COS18 crew, but no point in trying to outdo each other with doomsday scenarios, many of which smack of schadenfreude.
Stop tearing your hair out and doing the accountants’ job for them, do your own job safely instead (if you’re lucky enough to still be working) and stay healthy, and when the time comes and they tell us what their plan is, deal with it as your personal circumstances allow.