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Following is a question by the Hon Paul Tse and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (February 26):
Question:
There are press comments that despite their vast territories and having natural resources which are far more abundant than Hong Kong, Switzerland, Britain, Canada and Taiwan have recently raised their immigration requirements, tightened their polices on welfare benefits for new immigrants, and even abolished with immediate effect their business migration programmes which have been implemented for many years, after such countries/places have considered factors such as the impacts of immigrants on the local economy and the livelihood of local people, as well as the harms probably outweighing the benefits brought by accepting immigrants. On the other hand, the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong (CFA) has ruled earlier in a case that the requirement for seven-year residence in Hong Kong (residence requirement) stipulated by the Government for the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme is unconstitutional and the residence requirement has to be restored to one year which was the requirement before January 1, 2004. Some members of the public are worried that allowing the new arrivals to apply for and receive CSSA will inevitably lead to a significant increase in welfare expenditure. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it will make reference to the practices of the aforesaid countries/places and draw up corresponding options for alleviating the pressure posed by the new arrivals on welfare expenditure, e.g. amending CSSA's residence requirement or imposing appropriate additional conditions by means of administrative orders, legislative amendments or enactment of legislation; if it will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that;
(2) of the policies and measures put in place to step up the checking of whether CSSA applicants possess assets outside Hong Kong of value exceeding the asset limits for applying for CSSA;
(3) of the total number of CSSA applications received by the Social Welfare Department since the aforesaid CFA judgement from applicants who have not yet resided in Hong Kong for seven years; and
(4) whether, in respect of cases similar to the aforesaid case which involve major social issues that are rather controversial, the Secretary for Justice will conduct studies and review on whether the adoption of a subjective "proportionality analysis" by judges as the basis for their rulings may give rise to the impression in the community of "judges making laws", or even the constitutional problem of the judiciary overriding the legislature, particularly when the legislature cannot, due to the political reality, rectify court rulings by means of enacting legislation even though such rulings have enormous repercussions in society; and based on the results of the studies and review, draw up relevant policies or solutions to address the issues?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Paul Tse's question is set out below:
(1) and (3) The Social Welfare Department (SWD) complies with the judgment of the Court of Final Appeal (CFA) on the judicial review case on the residence requirement of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme on December 17, 2013, and has already restored the "one-year residence requirement" which was in effect before January 1, 2004 in accordance with the judgment. Persons under the age of 18 will continue to be exempted from the residence requirement under CSSA. SWD will continue to process the applications according to the applicable procedures.
Whether or not new arrivals will apply for CSSA mainly depends on their financial situation and interest in applying for the Scheme. As a matter of fact, the education level and family income of new arrivals have been on a rising trend. For instance, the proportion of persons from the Mainland residing in Hong Kong for less than seven years aged 15 and above who have attained secondary education level or above increased from 68 per cent in 2001 to 85 per cent in 2011; while the proportion with post-secondary education level rose from 6 per cent to 16 per cent. Meanwhile, the median monthly domestic household income of households with member(s) from the Mainland residing in Hong Kong for less than seven years increased by nearly 20 per cent from $12,050 to $14,070 over the same period.
Since the CFA handed down the judgment on December 17, 2013 and until February 24, 2014, SWD has received altogether 3 112 CSSA applications involving persons residing in Hong Kong for less than seven years, i.e. on average 69 applications per working day.
The Government will continue to implement various measures to enhance work incentive and alleviate poverty, e.g. the Statutory Minimum Wage, Work Incentive Transport Subsidy and various programmes under the Community Care Fund. The Chief Executive announced in his 2014 Policy Address the Government's proposal of introducing a Low-income Working Family Allowance to encourage self-reliance amongst low-income families. More allowance will be granted to those who work more. Particular attention will be given to children and young people in low-income families to promote upward social mobility and break the vicious cycle of inter-generational poverty. These measures help prevent the new arrivals from falling into the CSSA net.
(2) In handling CSSA applications, SWD will interview the applicants and pay home visits in order to verify the information (e.g. assets outside Hong Kong) provided by the applicants and their family members, and remind applicants to make honest reports on their circumstances and of the serious consequences of cheating CSSA payment. The Fraud Investigation Teams of SWD conduct in-depth investigation into suspected fraud cases, verify the authenticity of case information and operate a special hotline to receive reports from the public. SWD will continue to implement measures to prevent and combat CSSA frauds as appropriate.
(4) According to the Basic Law, courts of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are vested with independent judicial power and power of final adjudication. The power of final adjudication is vested in the CFA. The Government respects and complies with the judgment of the CFA in the judicial review case on the residence requirement of the CSSA Scheme. The Government has also considered the effect of the judgment on other social welfare programmes. In this regard, the CFA clearly pointed out that the judgment was specific to the CSSA Scheme involved in that case and should not be applied generally to the application arrangements for other welfare programmes.
Ends/Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Issued at HKT 13:40
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