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Following is a question by the Hon Tang Ka-piu and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (May 21):
Question:
At present, government departments and the Community Care Fund (CCF) administer various assistance schemes for people with low income or economic difficulties (assistance schemes), but the income limits for applying for such schemes are different, and there is no standardised review mechanism. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective income limits for three-person and four-person households applying for the assistance schemes listed in Table 1, and the respective numbers of applications received from three-person and four-person households with underage members under such schemes last year (set out in Table 1);
(2) of the respective monthly income of two-person to six-person households on the official Poverty Line as calculated on the basis of the latest statistics on household income;
(3) whether the government departments concerned took into account the official Poverty Line and the Statutory Minimum Wage (SMW) rate during their last reviews of the income limits for applying for the assistance schemes set out in (1); if so, how these two factors affected the income limits concerned, including their respective weightings in the relevant considerations;
(4) whether the government departments concerned consulted the related policy bureaux during their last reviews of the eligibility criteria for applying for the assistance schemes set out in (1); whether the authorities have put in place a set of standardised internal guidelines for reference by various departments in conducting such reviews; if they have not, how the authorities ensure that the eligibility criteria for applying for different assistance schemes will not differ greatly, and whether they will consider drawing up such guidelines and stating clearly in the guidelines that the income limits for applying for different assistance schemes should not be set lower than the levels of SMW rate and the official Poverty Line; and
(5) given that the Chief Executive has indicated in the 2014 Policy Address that the Government will commission a consultancy study to examine the feasibility of providing a more user-friendly one-stop service for applying for different welfare schemes, of the current progress of such consultancy study, and the expected time for implementing the measures concerned?
Reply:
President,
My reply to the Hon Tang Ka-piu's question is as follows:
(1) Regarding the assistance schemes in question, the requested income limits and number of applications last year are set out in Table 2.
(2) The poverty line is set at 50 per cent of the median monthly household income before policy intervention and is released on an annual basis. The latest available figures refer to the 2012 situation. The poverty line for 2012 in accordance with household size (2-person to 6-person-and-above households) is as follows:
2-person households $7,700
3-person households $11,500
4-person households $14,300
5-person households $14,800
6-person+ households $15,800
(3 & 4) The poverty line is not the "poverty alleviation line". Its major functions are:
(a) to gauge the poverty situation: quantify the poverty situation in Hong Kong, with focused analysis of the various groups of people living below the "poverty line" and thorough investigation of the features and causes of poverty;
(b) to facilitate policy formulation: serve as a guiding reference for government policy formulation so as to optimise the use of limited resources and put in place a more appropriate and effective poverty alleviation policy; and
(c) to review policy effectiveness: enable quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of policy interventions.
Statutory Minimum Wage aims at providing a wage floor to forestall excessively low wages, without unduly jeopardising Hong Kong's labour market flexibility, economic growth and competitiveness or causing significant adverse impact on the employment opportunities of vulnerable workers.
Both the poverty line and Statutory Minimum Wage were not set to determine individual assistance scheme's eligibility. Depending on the different policy objectives of individual schemes, relevant government departments might consider different factors in reviewing the income limits of the schemes concerned.
(5) The Efficiency Unit has awarded the contract to an external consultant for undertaking the study on a centralised approach for administering social benefits schemes in early May 2014. Fact-finding work is in progress. The consultancy study is expected to be completed within 2014.
Ends/Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Issued at HKT 15:12
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