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Following is a question by the Hon Tommy Cheung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (Jan 30):
Question:
It has been reported that at present the number of people continuously receiving payments under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme due to unemployment in Hong Kong has been persistently high. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of (i) the number of recipients who had continuously received CSSA for the unemployed (CSSA-U) for two years or more (broken down further by education level), (ii) the number of CSSA-U recipients, and (iii) the percentage of the former in the latter, in each year from 2007 to 2012, broken down by age group to which the recipients belonged (set out in Annex 1);
(b) of (i) the average weekly number of service hours performed under the Community Work Programme of the Support for Self-reliance Scheme by each recipient who had continuously received CSSA-U for two years or more (broken down further by education level); and (ii) the average weekly number of service hours performed by each recipient of CSSA-U under the Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2012, broken down by age group to which the recipients belonged (set out in Annex 2);
(c) of the number of people who had continuously received CSSA-U for two years or more, and no longer needed CSSA-U because of success in securing employment, in each year from 2007 to 2012, broken down by age group to which they belonged (calculated on the date of cessation of their receipt of CSSA-U) and by education level (set out in Annex 3);
(d) of (i) the number of recipients who had continuously received CSSA-U for five years or more (broken down further by education level), (ii) the number of CSSA-U recipients, and (iii) the percentage of the former in the latter, in each year from 2007 to 2012, broken down by age group to which the recipients belonged (set out in Annex 4);
(e) of (i) the average weekly number of service hours performed under the Community Work Programme of the Support for Self-reliance Scheme by each recipient who had continuously received CSSA-U for five years or more (broken down further by education level); and (ii) the average weekly number of service hours performed by each recipient of CSSA-U under the Programme, in each year from 2007 to 2012, broken down by age group to which the recipients belonged (set out in Annex 5); and
(f) of the number of people who had continuously received CSSA-U for five years or more, and no longer needed CSSA-U because of success in securing employment, in each year from 2007 to 2012, broken down by age group to which they belonged (calculated on the date of cessation of their receipt of CSSA-U) and by education level (set out in Annex 6)?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the question raised by the Hon Tommy Cheung is as follows:
The Social Welfare Department (SWD) has not kept the number of recipients who have been receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) continuously owing to unemployment throughout the whole period from 2007 to 2012. The statistics regarding the duration of stay on CSSA under the case nature of unemployment cannot therefore be provided in the following parts of the reply.
(a) and (d) The numbers of unemployed CSSA recipients aged 15 to 59 from 2007 to 2012, with breakdown by age group and academic qualification, are tabulated as Annex 7.
(b) and (e) Under the Community Work Programme operated by SWD, unemployed CSSA recipients are arranged to receive community work services for one day or three days per week. SWD has not kept record on the number of unemployed CSSA recipients by the number of hours of community work services they have received.
To integrate and improve the employment assistance services under the CSSA Scheme for enhanced effectiveness and synergy, SWD has launched the "Integrated Employment Assistance Programme for Self-reliance" since January 1, 2013. The Community Work Programme has been enhanced as "Work Exposure (WE) Services" covering more diversified and structured voluntary work and job attachment. The non-governmental organisations will provide WE Services to the unemployed CSSA recipients in need of WE Services for no more than three days per week according to their individual needs.
(c) and (f) SWD has not kept information on the unemployed CSSA recipients who have been receiving CSSA continuously owing to unemployment throughout the whole period and have subsequently left the CSSA Scheme as a result of their securing paid employment. It is noted, however, that a total of 6 085 unemployed CSSA recipients had left the CSSA net owing to securing paid employment during the period between October 2007 and end-September 2012.
Ends/Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Issued at HKT 14:47
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