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LCQ11: Assistance services under Community Care Fund
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     Following is a question by the Hon Tang Ka-piu and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (November 12):

Question:

     In October 2011, the Community Care Fund (CCF) launched an assistance programme to provide low-income elderly people on the waiting list for the Integrated Home Care Services (Ordinary Cases) (ordinary case service) with a subsidy for household cleaning and escorting services for medical consultations, with a view to enabling the elderly people to maintain household hygiene and attend medical consultations as scheduled. In February last year, the authorities submitted an evaluation report on the assistance programme to the relevant committee of this Council, in which it was confirmed that the assistance programme could help the elderly beneficiaries but it needed not be incorporated into the regular subsidised services of the Government due to the low utilisation of the subsidies. CCF plans to discontinue the assistance programme at the end of this year. Some non-governmental organisations worry that the elderly people currently receiving such subsidies will suddenly lose financial support upon the discontinuation of the assistance programme. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the respective numbers of elderly people who applied for and were granted the subsidies each year since the assistance programme was launched; the annual numbers of elderly people who ceased to receive the subsidies upon being provided with the ordinary case service, and the average duration for which the elderly people received the subsidies;

(2) whether the Social Welfare Department will increase the places for the ordinary case service after the discontinuation of the assistance programme in order to cater for the needs of the elderly people currently receiving the subsidies; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and

(3) whether the authorities will review afresh the efficacy of the assistance programme and consider continuing with the programme?

Reply:

President,

     My reply to the question raised by the Hon Tang Ka-piu is as follows:

(1) The "Subsidy for Elders who are on the Waiting List of Integrated Home Care Services (Ordinary Cases) for Household Cleaning and Escorting Services for Medical Consultations" programme (the assistance services) has been implemented since October 2011 and subsequently extended in December 2012. It aimed to provide assistance services to eligible elderly persons till December 2014 the latest. The Social Welfare Department (SWD) invited three rounds of applications in October 2011, May 2012 and December 2012 respectively. The respective numbers of applicants and elderly beneficiaries are set out below:

                    No. of             No. of
                  applicants        beneficiaries
                  -----------       -------------
October 2011          681                660
May 2012              430                416
December 2012         284                265
Total               1 395              1 341

     As at end-October 2014, of the 1 341 elderly beneficiaries, 459 had ceased receiving the assistance services upon provision of subsidised community care services (including Integrated Home Care Services (IHCS)) after an average service period of 18 months, while 289 had ceased receiving the assistance services owing to other reasons (including withdrawal from the programme, admission to residential care service, not re-applying upon programme extension, etc.).

(2) As at end-October 2014, there were still 593 elderly beneficiaries receiving the assistance services. These beneficiaries' service needs were being reviewed by the relevant IHCS Teams (teams). If they were assessed to have priority service needs, the teams would make arrangements for their admission to the waitlisted subvented services before the end of the assistance services by the end of this year. For elderly beneficiaries with no priority service needs and choosing to continue to wait for IHCS (Ordinary Cases), the teams would arrange for them other community support services according to their individual circumstances and needs.

(3) SWD has conducted an evaluation on the assistance services and found the application rate relatively low (less than 40% of the invited elderly persons applied). The average amount of subsidy used by each elderly beneficiary per month was only about 60% of the monthly cap, which was on the low side. Also, the operating and administrative costs of the programme were comparatively high and might cause overlapping in resources with the existing IHCS (Ordinary Cases). In the light of the above, the Government has decided not to continue this programme.

Ends/Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:56

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