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Following is a question by the Dr Hon Fernando Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (October 26):
Question:
Recently, a number of parents approached my office for assistance. They said that their children had been receiving Higher Disability Allowance (HDA) for a number of years but the Social Welfare Department (SWD) had suddenly said that their children had been living in school dormitories, which was against the requirement that recipients of such allowance must not be receiving care in a government or subvented residential institution. SWD therefore asked them to return the overpaid allowance they had received. In one case, a parent was asked by SWD to return $160,000. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council :
(a) of the number of cases over the past five years in which SWD asked HDA recipients to return the overpaid allowance because it had discovered that their residential status had breached the above requirement, broken down by whether they have lived in school dormitories, serviced hostels or hospitals, and the amount involved in each case; and
(b) among such cases, of the number of recipients whose families had to apply for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance because they had to return the overpaid allowance to SWD?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Disability Allowance (DA) includes Normal Disability Allowance (NDA) and Higher Disability Allowance (HDA). According to the existing provisions, a person is eligible for NDA if his/her disabling condition is certified by a public medical officer to be in a position broadly equivalent to a person with a 100% loss of earning capacity. To be eligible for HDA, in addition to meeting the eligibility criteria for NDA, the person :
* must be certified by the Director of Health or the Chief Executive of Hospital Authority to be in need of constant attendance from others in his/her daily life; and
* must not be receiving care in a government or subvented residential institution or a medical residential institution under the Hospital Authority.
In the process of handling each HDA application and review case, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) will explain the above eligibility criteria to the applicant. SWD will determine the eligibility of HDA according to information reported by the applicant on whether he/she is living at home or has been admitted to a government or subvented residential institution. The applicant is also required to report to the SWD immediately any change in his/her circumstances, including admission to an institution.
As the Computerised Social Security System (the System) of the SWD has come into operation since October 2000, we can only provide the data on overpaid allowance during the past four years are listed in Table.
Over the past four years, the above-mentioned overpayment cases and the amount of overpayment involved account for about 1.1% of the total number of DA cases and 0.2% of the total DA expenditure on average. The overpayments were mainly caused by the applicants' failure to report immediately to the SWD their admission to residential institutions or hospitals, or the change in the applicants' circumstances were later discovered by SWD staff when conducting case reviews and data matching. The SWD has already worked out repayment arrangements, including repayment by installments, with the majority of applicants for recovering the overpayments.
DA is non-contributory and funded by general revenue. To safeguard public funds, it is necessary for the SWD to follow its usual practice of recovering any overpayment incurred by the applicants. When handling these cases, SWD staff will find out the reasons leading to overpayment and negotiate with the applicant to agree on a reasonable repayment plan. The provision stipulating that applicants admitted to residential institutions or hospitals for residential care are only entitled to receive NDA is meant to prevent double benefits and ensure the proper use of public money.
(b) The SWD does not have records available to show how many cases in the table above have ended up having to apply for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) because of the need to repay the overpaid allowance. Application for CSSA is an option for anyone in financial difficulty to meet basic needs of livelihood. While CSSA applicants must pass both the income and assets tests, applicants for DA are not subject to any means test.
Ends/Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Issued at HKT 16:19
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