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Following is a question by the Hon Cheung Kwok-che and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (June 2):
Question:
It has been two years since the Government allocated $200 million in 2008-2009 for the implementation of the five-year Home Environment Improvement Scheme for the Elderly (the Home Improvement Scheme) through the District Elderly Community Centres (DECCs) in Hong Kong. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the expenditure of various DECCs under the Home Improvement Scheme and the number of cases they received in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010;
(b) whether the authorities have set any target for the Home Improvement Scheme, so as to ensure that DECCs complete a specified number of cases within a time frame (such as specifying the number of cases to be handled by each centre in a year); and
(c) given that some DECCs had relayed to me in each of the past two years that the funds allocated by the authorities for covering the administration expenses incurred in implementing the Home Improvement Scheme was not sufficient to meet the expenses incurred in handling the heavy application caseload, and the three-year Programme Worker posts allocated by the Government will be cancelled on April 1 next year, whether the authorities will increase the relevant funding; if they will, of the details?
Reply:
President,
In the 2008-2009 Budget, the Government earmarked one-off funding of $200 million to launch the 5-year Home Environment Improvement Scheme for the Elderly (the Scheme) which helps elders who live in dilapidated homes with poor fittings and lack the financial means to improve their home conditions. The Scheme is implemented with the assistance of all the 41 District Elderly Community Centres (DECCs) in Hong Kong.
The Finance Committee of the Legislative Council approved the funding in May 2008. The Scheme was launched in June of the same year.
My reply to Hon Cheung Kwok-che's question is as follows:
(a) In 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, the Social Welfare Department (SWD) allocated over $80 million to all the DECCs for implementing the Scheme. The funding allocated to each DECC is determined by the proportion of elderly households in the individual districts as well as the number of DECCs in the districts. By March 2010, the DECCs had received over 21,000 applications in total. The funding allocation and number of cases received by individual DECCs are set out at Annex.
(b) When the Scheme was launched, we expected that about 40,000 elderly households would benefit from the Scheme in five years. Since applications are made on a voluntary basis, the Government has not set any target for the number of applications to be handled by each DECC per year.
(c) The Government has earmarked 10% out of the $200 million funding for the entire Scheme as the administration costs for DECCs to implement the Scheme. This has taken into consideration the additional workload to be taken up by DECCs and also the need to ensure that the bulk of the funding will be spent on helping elders in need.
SWD has been closely monitoring the progress of the Scheme, and has provided additional operational funding for individual centres after taking into account the views of some DECCs. For instance, considering that some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operate only one DECC and therefore cannot achieve synergy with other centres, SWD has provided a total of $180,000 additional operational funding for these centres to subsidise their administration expenses. In addition, SWD has also provided annual additional funding of about $140,000 in total for all DECCs to obtain "Third Party Works Liability Insurance", so as to protect the interests of works contractors engaged by DECCs and elder service users. Furthermore, to help elders in Tai O fix the damage done to their living environment owing to the flood in 2008, SWD allocated in 2008-2009 an additional $96,000 for the DECC in the district to speed up the processing of applications from elderly households affected by the flood.
SWD will continue to maintain close contact with DECCs, and has invited representatives of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service and social welfare organisations to set up a working group to regularly review the progress of the Scheme.
The posts of Programme Worker mentioned in the question are temporary posts. It aims to help young people gain working experience, so as to facilitate their employment in future. This arrangement bears no direct relation to the Scheme.
Ends/Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Issued at HKT 12:18
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