I too interviewed for DESO in 08, just finished reading through it.
This forgivable loan is a bit peculiar.
“Those who only require Transition Training will spend approximately HK$220,000 and the remaining HK$880,000 will be made available to the Officer.
This forgivable loan will be deemed to have been repaid through 6 years of continuous service.”
This sounds kind of like an end of service gratuity, except it comes at the beginning. Do you guys have the same interpretation? Of course it is also implied that if you leave prior to 6 years you must pay-back the loan. HK880,000 (113,000USD) up front is a good incentive, but it’s probably not as much as one would gain from the initially offered housing allowance scheme. The package I received back in 08 stated that I would receive from HK14,000 up to 26,000, and after two years, 18,000 up to a maximum of 50,000. I suspect the wide range was due to fluctuations in rental rates, but this was never explained. Please correct me if wrong, but I estimate that I would have been paid somewhere between HK1,400,000 and 2,400,000 in housing allowance over the course of 6 years, without considering tax.
Under the new scheme of HK10,000 a month, and assuming at least 5 years as a SO
, and then maybe 1 years as JFO, that would equal 720,000, plus what’s left of the forgivable allowance (880,000) would amount to 1,600,000 after 6 years. I guess the idea here is to use the loan to supplement the reduced housing allowance until getting upgraded to FO, assuming the higher FO salary would adequately compensate.
The new package states that the FO (first year, I guess) basic monthly salary is HK72,270, does anybody know if this is a significant increase from before?
Still sounds like quite a financial stretch knowing how expensive that city is.
CF