Originally Posted by
Numero Crunchero
Yes it is contractual to pay housing assistance/HKPA for all of us. The levels are policy. So $1 is still an ARAP payment for someone who was getting $100K last month in rental assistance. As I have stated on these forums, and in all the TA18 forums, the amount can vary. If it varies too much - then it is challengeable in court. As I said - what was defines "too much" in Sep 2020 is very different to what the amount/percentage would have been in Dec 2019.
In terms of even pain? I am not so sure - somehow I think i am in the demographic that will be hit hardest. If they put us on onto current levels of HKPA - that hurts less than half the pilots here. And where would we go? If they tweak HKPA as well - then a lot of pain for the expats very little pain for HKPA recipients.
So yeah - if there is pain I will almost guarantee it won't be (fairly) shared - pretty sure my demographic will be hit hardest!
The housing rental levels are contractural. Sometimes you put too much emphasis on numbers while ignoring words. “adjusted to reflect market conditions in Hong Kong” while not being rock solid, is probably why they’ve only been adjusted to reflect market conditions in Hong Kong. Sure, market conditions are currently weak, so there’s no surprise the allowance currently reflects this. That’s exactly what the contract stipulates.
I’m in agreement with you that the pain won’t be shared equally. It never is. That’s life.
I’m not sure how much sympathy our demographic that failed to negotiate a common retirement age while “enjoying” 10 years of extra work can argue we’ll be hit the hardest. In the game of swings and roundabouts there won’t be many tears for us.