Inflation adjusted increase in Housing & Education (Locals)
 

An interesting article in SCMP.
Civil servants (many locals) always get solid increases in salary & allowances.
While we have somewhat behind...

Perks go up 4.8pc for civil servants

HK$2.6b fringe benefits


Ng Kang-chung
Mar 20, 2010






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Taxpayers will have to fork out an extra 4.8 per cent in the next financial year to fund fringe benefits for a few tens of thousands of civil servants and their children.The payments cover items such as the education - in Hong Kong and overseas - of the children of senior civil servants, rent and mortgages, furniture and appliances, holidays, and even air-conditioning, though only three people are expected to claim the latter perk.

The biggest share of a projected HK$2.62 billion in fringe benefits will go on education allowances, for which the bill will be HK$751 million, a rise of 7.4 per cent from this year.
An average of HK$102,000 per head will be paid for 2,879 children being educated overseas (who will also get an average of HK$20,600 each for flights home in the school holidays). The money will cover up to 90 per cent of boarding school fees, subject to a ceiling of £7,400; parents pay the rest.
An average of HK$22,200 per head will be paid towards the local school fees of 20,617 children, for whom the total bill will rise 7.8 per cent.
Education allowance started out as a benefit for civil servants recruited from overseas to send their children to their home countries to study. In the name of equality, it was extended to their non-expatriate colleagues. Then, since some of those entitled to the study allowance did not want to sent their children overseas, a local allowance was introduced.
Housing and related allowances are projected to cost HK$1.72 billion. Nearly 15,000 civil servants will share HK$785 million in home purchase allowances, up 5.3 per cent year on year. Some 13,000 will claim an average of HK$1,250 in house allowance and for furniture and appliances.
Some 1,626 civil servants are expected to claim an average of just over HK$41,000 each for leave passage - meaning holidays.
Civil servants continue to enjoy such privileges because the government fears a legal challenge if it tries to scale back or withdraw them. Article 100 of the Basic Law states: "Public servants ... may all remain in employment and retain their seniority with pay, allowances, benefits and conditions of service no less favourable than before."
Still, in most cases those who joined the civil service in the past decade or so are not entitled to the perks, and several of the allowances have been frozen.
Leung Chau-ting, chairman of the Federation of Civil Service Unions, defended the fringe benefits.
"The allowances are like employee benefits. Just like ordinary workers, civil servants should also be entitled to job-related allowances and other fringe benefits.
"And bear in mind, there are over 100,000 civil servants. An expenditure of HK$2 billion should not be said to be too big. And after all, it is protected under the Basic Law."
Legislator Cheung Man-kwong, of the Democratic Party, said: "The government has always been overly generous in terms of giving out allowances." But he said there was little that could be done to contain spending on allowances because of Article 100 of the Basic Law.
As well as the fringe benefits, civil servants are expected to claim HK1.2 billion in duty allowances, a drop of 6 per cent from this year. The allowances are paid to those standing in for their superiors, doing overtime, travelling on government business or posted overseas.