******************************
Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (December 2):
Question:
It is pointed out in a research that nearly three times as many women as men fall into "relative poverty" and, according to the Social Welfare Department's information, as at September 2009, there were 290 077 Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) cases with 481 128 recipients in total. In addition, there were 421 035 and 69 496 persons receiving Higher Old Age Allowance (Higher OAA) and Normal Old Age Allowance (Normal OAA) respectively. In this connection, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
(a) whether they had, in the past three years, collected data by nature of case and age respectively on the male-to-female ratio of CSSA recipients; if they had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that, and when they will consider collecting such data;
(b) whether they had, in the past three years, collected data on the male-to-female ratio of Higher OAA and Normal OAA recipients; if they had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that, and when they will consider collecting such data;
(c) of the respective numbers of CSSA and OAA applications not meeting the seven-year residence requirement in each of the past five years; whether they had compiled statistics on the male-to-female ratio of such applicants, as well as among such applications, the number of those for which approval had been granted with discretion; if they had, of the details; if not, the reasons for that, and when they will consider collecting such data;
(d) given that a research has shown that the phenomenon of "feminisation of poverty" emerged worldwide, whether the authorities had, in the past five years, conducted research on the issue of feminisation of poverty in Hong Kong; if they had, of the relevant indicators for measuring poverty and other details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(e) whether they have analysed the data in (a) to (d) and considered the direction of welfare policy in the light of the differences between male and female; if they have, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
(a) The number of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) recipients for the past three years, broken down by case nature, age and gender, is at Annex I.
(b) The number of Old Age Allowance (OAA) recipients for the past three years, broken down by the type of allowance and gender, is at Annex II.
It should be noted that OAA is a cash allowance provided to Hong Kong residents aged 65 or above, with the aim of helping them meet special needs arising from old age. As recipients of the Higher OAA are not subject to means tests, there is no direct correlation between the receipt of OAA and the economic situation of these recipients.
(c) Since January 1, 2004, applicants for CSSA and OAA must have been Hong Kong residents for at least seven years and have resided in Hong Kong continuously for at least one year immediately before the date of application. Hong Kong residents aged below 18 are exempted from these residence requirements. As for adult applicants, CSSA may be granted at the discretion of the Director of Social Welfare (DSW) to a person who does not satisfy the residence requirements in exceptional circumstances.
Between January 2004 and September 2009, altogether 6 240 CSSA cases were exempted from the seven-year residence requirement. As the gender of the applicant is not a relevant factor considered by DSW in exercising his discretion, the Social Welfare Department does not have statistics on the number of applications by gender.
In addition, as there is no discretionary arrangement for the approval of OAA, the relevant figures are not available.
(d) & (e) All along, the Government has been implementing poverty alleviation measures and welfare services to assist the needy as appropriate, having regard to the actual circumstances. Abiding by the principle of gender equality, the Administration will ensure that welfare policies and programmes are not discriminatory against male or female, and that every Hong Kong resident, irrespective of gender, will have equal access to social welfare resources.
In view of the above, the Government has not conducted any study specifically on "feminisation of poverty", or any analysis on the male-to-female ratio of CSSA or OAA recipients.
Ends/Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Issued at HKT 12:23
NNNN
