Traditional Chinese Simplified Chinese Email this article news.gov.hk
SLW on Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme
**********************************************

     Following is a transcript of remarks (English portion) by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy (WITS) Scheme at a media stand-up session this afternoon (September 12):

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: We have just issued an information paper to the Legislative Council this morning introducing the progress of the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme. Let me give you a very brief update here. You recalled that when I went to the Legislative Council Finance Committee in February this year, I promised to roll out the scheme if possible by October this year. I am very glad that we are now ready to do so, and the scheme will kick off on October 3. We expect to make the first payment of up to a maximum of $3,600, i.e. $600 a month and counting back to April this year with a total of six months, for the eligible applicants by the end of this year. The Labour Department has been proceeding with full steam ahead in the preparatory work and everything is ready now. We are now ready to receive applications on October 3. The information technology structure has been in place, recruitment has now been completed. We have also identified a new office premises in Middle Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. It is a new office for a possessing centre and also handling applications. There are 72 outlets where application forms would be available and these include, of course, the WITS centre itself, and also 12 job centres of the Labour Department, all 36 social security offices of the Social Welfare Department plus all the public enquiry counters of the Home Affairs Department. Of course, you can download it from the website. It's easy. Starting from September 22, the Government Hotline 1823 will operate round the clock to answer enquiries to help applicants to fill in forms.

     I would like to stress one point: in designing the operational details of the scheme, we are mindful of the need to be user-friendly. That's why we only require essential information to be provided. But there must be information for the vetting process. So I hope people can understand why certain information must be provided before we can actually make an assessment. The scheme itself as you may recall would involve the government financial commitment of $4.8 billion over three years. This is designed to relieve the household expenses, particularly spending on commuting to and from work, and also encourage employment in the process. We envisage this particular measure together with the statutory minimum wage which has been in place on May 1 would form a "twin measures policy instrument" to help the working poor, promote employment and also particularly ease the financial burden of the working poor commuting to and from work.

     According to statistics provided by the Census and Statistics Department, for the second quarter of this year, in fact most low-paid workers in Hong Kong generally enjoyed a pay rise after implementation of the minimum wage of about an average of 9.7 per cent in nominal terms, and a real growth of 4 per cent after discounting inflation. So, together with the minimum wage, the WITS Scheme and Scheme $6,000, which has also been launched recently, it should go a long way to ease the pressure of inflation on the grass-roots workers in Hong Kong.

Reporter: Mr Cheung, would the income limit be raised?

Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Well, first of all, when it comes to whether the income limit is to be revised, I promised when I went to the Finance Committee in February and made it quite clear that the scheme would be subject to overall review in three years. But then I offered to carry out an interim review after the first year of implementation. I will certainly do so and also I would monitor closely the implementation of the scheme to ensure that it operates smoothly having regard to all the circumstances. As regard bigger families, in fact, the whole scheme is constructed to reflect the need of family sizes, household sizes; it all goes up depending on the number of people in the households. So it takes into account the household sizes.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Monday, September 12, 2011
Issued at HKT 19:39

NNNN

Print this page