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Following is a statement issued by the Social Welfare Department (SWD) today (May 8) in response to media enquiries about the one-year-continuous-residence requirement (OYCR) under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme:
The eligibility criterion requiring CSSA applicants to have lived in Hong Kong for one year continuously before submitting their applications has been shelved since June 2010. Thus revoking the requirement in March this year had no impact on the applicants.
As a matter of fact, following the ruling of the Court of First Instance of the High Court on June 21, 2010, the SWD has shelved the OYCR and issued a press release and removed the requirement from its website and pamphlets.
As for the Court of Appeal's ruling on February 17, 2012, the SWD decided in mid-March not to further appeal after seeking legal advice.
Since the SWD has already shelved the OYCR under the CSSA Scheme, the decision to revoke the requirement made no difference in terms of the administration of the Scheme and had no impact on the applications.
The SWD stressed that the department would, as a matter of course, notify the applicants should any measure materially affect them.
Ends/Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Issued at HKT 16:54
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