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Following is a question by the Hon Gary Fan and a reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (October 29):
Question :
On December 17, 2013, the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) ruled that the requirement for seven-year residence in Hong Kong (residence requirement) stipulated by the Government for the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme is unconstitutional, and the residence requirement was therefore restored from seven years to one year, which was the requirement before January 1, 2004. It has been reported that during the period from CFA's handing down of its judgment to late June this year, the Government received over 5 000 CSSA applications made by persons with less than seven years' residence in Hong Kong. As such, some members of the public are worried that the CSSA cases concerned will increase the financial pressure on the Government. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of CSSA applications received and approved by the Government since CFA's handing down of the aforesaid judgment which were made by persons with less than seven years' residence in Hong Kong, the current number of CSSA recipients with less than seven yearsˇ¦ residence in Hong Kong, the percentage of that number in the total number of CSSA cases and a breakdown of that number by type of cases, as well as the age distribution and employment status of such recipients;
(2) of the total expenditure of the CSSA payments made by the authorities to persons with less than seven years' residence in Hong Kong since CFA's handing down of the aforesaid judgment; and
(3) as the authorities have indicated that the application, approval and issuance of Permits for Proceeding to Hong Kong and Macao (commonly known as One-way Permits (OWPs)) fall within the remit of the mainland authorities, whether the Government has put in place any mechanism or policies to ensure that persons who come to settle in Hong Kong on OWPs are financially self-sufficient; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Gary Fan's question is set out below:
(1) The Social Welfare Department (SWD) respects the judgment of the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) on the judicial review case on the residence requirement of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme on December 17, 2013, and has already restored the "one-year residence requirement" which was in effect before January 1, 2004 in accordance with the judgment. As in the past, persons under the age of 18 will continue to be exempted from the residence requirement of the CSSA Scheme.
From the date of the CFA judgment to September 30, 2014, SWD received 7 639 CSSA applications which involved persons aged 18 or above and residing in Hong Kong for less than seven years, and 6 696 of such cases have been granted CSSA.
As at September 30, 2014, there were 18 439 CSSA recipients residing in Hong Kong for less than seven years, which was about 4.8% of the total 384 305 CSSA recipients. Amongst them, 2 149 had earnings from employment. The above figure includes those recipients aged under 18 and exempted from the CSSA residence requirement, as well as those granted CSSA by the Director of Social Welfare under the discretionary arrangement before the relevant CFA judgment. As regards the age distribution of the recipients, the number of recipients aged under 18, aged 18 to 59 and aged 60 or above were 6 875, 10 766 and 798 respectively. The number of recipients by case type is at Annex.
(2) It has been less than a year since the CFA judgment. SWD requires a longer time to observe the trend of the number of new CSSA applications involving persons residing in Hong Kong for less than seven years and their approval status in order to more accurately gauge the impact of the judgment on CSSA expenditure. The actual financial implications would, to a very large extent, depend on the financial status of new-arrivals and their interest in applying for CSSA. As a matter of fact, the number of such applications has fallen sharply from a high of 170 per working day at the end of last year to about 10 per working day recently.
(3) Article 22(4) of the Basic Law stipulates that, for entry into the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), people from other parts of China must apply for approval. Mainland residents who wish to settle in Hong Kong must apply for One-way Permits (OWPs) from the Exit and Entry Administration Offices of the Public Security Bureau at the places of their household registration on the Mainland. The policy objective of the OWP Scheme is not for the admission of talents or investors. Rather, it allows Mainland residents to come to Hong Kong for family reunion in an orderly manner in accordance with the relevant laws and regulations of the Mainland and through approval by the Mainland authorities. In the OWP approval process, Mainland residents who meet the eligibility criteria laid down by the Mainland authorities may apply to come to settle in Hong Kong. The HKSAR Government does not see any justification or need to change the existing OWP Scheme or to put in place other administrative screening measure.
Ends/Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Issued at HKT 14:12
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