28th October 2026 – (Hong Kong) Newly retired civil servants and judicial officers are crossing a monthly HK$20,000 pension threshold for the first time, Civil Service Bureau figures released in reply to Legislative Council questions show — as more than 163,000 people already draw pensions and the government’s statutory liability stands at HK$924.8 billion.
Staff appointed before 1st June 2000 remain on the old pension scheme, generally more generous than later terms. In 2025/26, the average pension for those who newly retired reached HK$20,200 a month, about 14 per cent above the HK$17,700 average among those already on the books. Under the established adjustment mechanism, pensions rose by 2.1 per cent in that financial year, adding roughly HK$370 a month on average for each recipient.
As at 31st March 2026, 163,765 retired civil servants and judicial officers were drawing a monthly pension. By age, 9,456 were under 60; 36,196 were 60 to 64; 42,514 were 65 to 69; 33,017 were 70 to 74; and 22,944 were 75 to 79. Older cohorts numbered 9,143 aged 80 to 84, 6,610 aged 85 to 89, 3,023 aged 90 to 94, and 862 aged 95 or above.
Another 36,234 serving officers still hold pensionable old-scheme terms and will join the rolls on retirement: 5,949 under 50, 16,243 aged 50 to 54, 11,927 aged 55 to 59, 2,036 aged 60 to 64, and 79 aged 65 or above. The pension scheme applies only to appointments before 1st June 2000. Spending will keep rising for a time as those staff leave work, then ease gradually from the mid-2030s. Exact headcounts and exit dates vary by individual plans, so the government cannot pinpoint when the last cohort departs, but roughly expects them all to have retired around 2040.
Independent actuaries update the liability each year using membership data, pay trends, life expectancy and inflation. As at 31st March 2025, the present value of the statutory pension commitment was HK$924.8 billion — about 40 per cent tied to serving civil servants and judicial officers, and about 60 per cent to those already retired.
That present-value bill, the rising average for each new cohort of leavers, and the tens of thousands still waiting to join the rolls together sketch the long tail of pre-2000 terms: a monthly cheque for more than 160,000 people today, and a liability that will shadow the public purse until the old scheme finally runs out of people still in post.
