Premier Alden McLaughlin has underscored that government will not be allowing further pension withdrawals.
“No, not at all,” the premier said when asked at last Thursday’s vaccination press briefing if he had reconsidered his position on allowing pension withdrawals.
Last year, government unlocked pensions to allow local workers to make one-off withdrawals as an interim relief measure due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A pension holiday also commenced along with the withdrawals last April. That holiday has been extended until 30 June 2021, which means employers and employees need not make their otherwise mandatory monthly pension contributions for another five months.
Government had amended the National Pensions Law to allow local workers to make withdrawals from their pension accounts.
In total, workers withdrew $443.5 million in retirement savings last year.
Under the emergency-withdrawal scheme, which was only open until October last year, eligible savers could withdraw up to $10,000 plus 25% of the remaining balance from their pension accounts.
Last month, the Department of Labour and Pensions announced that, based on statistics it has received from pension plan administrators, a total of 46,888 applications had been made. Of these, more than 36,000 were approved, while 9,909 were rejected, meaning almost half of the 73,000 private pension accounts in Cayman were subject to withdrawals.
The final statistics for the withdrawals over the six-month period are expected to be made public this month.
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