Social Security

The Social Security Fund is subordinate to the Secretariat for Social Affairs and Culture and responsible for implementing various policy measures concerning social security and managing relevant resources.

Established on 23^rd March 1990, the Social Security Fund primarily serves to provide social security for local employees. With the exacerbated social phenomenon of ageing, the demand of residents for a universal coverage has become increasingly urgent. Thus, in November 2008 the Government announced the Social Security and Old-age Pension System Reform Programme. Its core content is to build a double-tier social security system (i.e.) through the first-tier social security system all Macao residents can enjoy basic social protection, particularly old-age protection in order to improve the quality of life of residents whilst a more ample protection for retired life is supported by the second tier non-mandatory Central Provident Fund.

Social Security System

Law n^o. 4/2010 "Social Security System" came into effect on January 1, 2011. It is the first layer of the two-tiered social security system operating on the principle of social insurance. Its fiscal revenue mainly comes from the fixed contributions of employees, employers and contributors of arbitrary system, the gambling revenue appropriation, 1% of recurrent income of the government’s total budget, 3% of the central executive budget balance, employment fee for non-resident workers as well as the revenue from the investments of the Social Security Fund.

Contribution System

The social security contribution system consists of the obligatory system and arbitrary system.  Local employees and employers with an employment relationship are required to make obligatory system contributions of MOP 90 (employer MOP 60, employee MOP 30) to the Social Security Fund (abbreviated to FSS in Macao), and other Macao residents who meet certain legal requirements can also make contributions (MOP 90 per month) by enrolling in the arbitrary system. 

Social Security Pension Payments and Allowances

According to the current social security system, eligible beneficiaries are legally entitled to old-age pension, disability pension, unemployment allowance, sickness allowance, birth allowance, marriage allowance and funeral allowance as well as compensation for occupational respiratory disease.

In accordance with Executive Order No. 212/2019, the amount of benefits and allowances for the social security system are as follows:

Pension payments/ Allowances	Amount (MOP)
Old-age pension	3,740/month
Disability pension	3,740/month
Unemployment allowance	150/day
Sickness allowance	Non-hospitalisation: 114/day Hospitalisation: 150/day
Birth allowance	5,418/application (If both parents are eligible for the birth allowance, both of them can apply)
Marriage allowance	2,122/application (If both spouses are eligible for marriage allowance, both of them can apply)
Funeral allowance	2,750/application (One time payment to the applicant who provides proof of bearing the funeral expenses of the beneficiary)

Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund System

“Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund System” came into force on 1^st January 2018, which is composed of Contributory System and Allocation System, holder of the Individual Account can accumulate funds for future retirement from investment return and rollover generated by the contribution made to the account.

Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund System is comprised of allocation system and contribution scheme. Account owners can contribution through the contribution scheme and accumulate wealth by investment, for better quality of retired life.

Individual Accounts of Non-Mandatory Central Provident Fund

An individual who has attained 18 years of age, or an individual who is under 18 years of age, but has already enrolled in the social security system in accordance with law, will become individual account owners of the non-mandatory central provident fund system.

An individual account of the non-mandatory central provident fund system is composed of a government-managed sub-account, a contribution sub-account and a preserved sub-account.

Contribution Scheme of Provident Fund

The Contribution schemes of provident fund consist of Joint Provident Fund Scheme and Private Provident Pension Scheme. The former is applied to employees; monthly contribution is made by both employer and employee, which is equivalent to five percent of the employee’s monthly basic wage. The individual provident fund scheme is designed for all account owners with a monthly contribution amount ranging from MOP 500 to MOP 3,300. The upper and lower limits for the benchmark contribution calculation are linked with ‘Minimum Wage for Employees’. The balance of the individual account can be invested into a pension fund under the non-mandatory central provident fund for wealth accumulation, and managed by qualified fund management entities.

Upon termination of employment, the employee is entitled to the accumulated benefits from the employer’s part according to the length of contribution and the applicable vesting ratio. Since the individual account of a non-mandatory central provident fund is portable, the benefits in the contribution scheme will not be cleared or withdrawn due to employment termination, and can be retained in the same account for continued investment.

Allocation System

Subject to the budget implementation of the past fiscal years, an account owner, who is alive on January 1^st of the calendar year and meets the following requirements in the previous calendar year, will be entitled to the special allocation from budget surplus.

• Permanent resident of the Macao Special Administrative Region;
• At least 22 years of age;
• Having been in the Macao Special Administrative Region for at least 183 days.

Account owners who become eligible for the first time are entitled to a basic lump-sum incentive of MOP 10,000 and a special allocation from the budget surplus, which can be saved cumulatively; account owners can also join the provident fund contribution schemes and apply to transfer the balance of the government-managed sub-account to the contribution sub-account or preserved sub-account for investment purposes.

Withdrawal of Funds

To cope with the aim of creating a more comfortable retirement for account owners, in normal circumstances, they can withdraw the funds from their account only when they are 65 years old or older. If they have not reached the age of 65, they may apply for withdrawal in advance if they meet the legal requirements concerned.