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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, on the court ruling on the judicial review on the Old Age Allowance at a media session today (May 14):
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: We learnt the court ruling this morning. It reaffirmed the legal basis of the pre-application one-year-continuous-residence requirement for all applicants for the Old Age Allowance. In fact, the requirement is based on sound policy considerations. Primarily, we are talking about non-contributory social security system. It is important that we manage the resources carefully and prudently to make sure that it is distributed fairly, and also more important to make sure its viability in the long term. Sustainability is a very important point. The requirement for the applicant to reside in Hong Kong for a full year before application is to establish the link with Hong Kong community. That is the primary consideration that we have been operating in the last few years.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, May 14, 2012
Issued at HKT 12:08
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