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Following is a question by the Hon Chan Hak-kan and a reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (March 2):
Question:
Under the "Guangdong Scheme" launched by the Government in October 2013, eligible Hong Kong elderly people (i.e. people aged 65 or above) who have moved to reside in Guangdong Province may receive a monthly Old Age Allowance (OAA) without being required to return to Hong Kong each year. On the other hand, during his visit to Fujian Province in 2014, the Chief Executive remarked that with Fujian Province being the place of origin of quite a number of Hong Kong residents (estimated to be as high as 1.2 million), there were strong connections between Hong Kong and Fujian Province, and the commissioning of the Xiamen-Shenzhen High Speed Railway had shortened the distance between Hong Kong and Xiamen of Fujian Province. Also, Fujian Province would become the fourth partner province/municipality with which Hong Kong had special economic and trade relations. Although more and more elderly people have chosen to reside in Fujian Province in recent years, they cannot benefit from the Guangdong Scheme or similar schemes. Regarding the provision of financial assistance to Hong Kong elderly people residing on the Mainland, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of OAA applications received and approved by the authorities, as well as the amount of OAA disbursed, each year under the Guangdong Scheme since its inception;
(2) whether it has compiled statistics on the current number of Hong Kong elderly people residing in Fujian Province; given the increasingly close ties between Hong Kong and Fujian Province on various fronts, whether the authorities will consider afresh extending the coverage of the Guangdong Scheme to Fujian Province; and
(3) given that the authorities indicated in 2013 that one year after the implementation of the Guangdong Scheme, they would study the feasibility of allowing elderly people who had chosen to reside in Guangdong Province to receive Old Age Living Allowance therein, whether the authorities will conduct such a study expeditiously; if they will, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Government launched the Guangdong Scheme (GD Scheme) in October 2013 to allow eligible Hong Kong elderly people who choose to reside in Guangdong Province to receive the monthly Old Age Allowance (OAA) without having to return to Hong Kong every year. Subject to approval by the Legislative Council (LegCo), the payment rate of OAA will increase by 4.4 per cent (from the current monthly rate of $1,235 to $1,290), in accordance with the established mechanism with retrospective effect from February 1, 2016. As at end-December 2015, 16 199 elderly people benefitted from GD Scheme.
On the other hand, the Government launched the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) in April 2013 to supplement the living expenses of Hong Kong elderly people aged 65 or above who are in need of financial support. At present, elderly people who are in need may receive the allowance after a simple declaration of income and assets. Subject to approval by LegCo, the payment rate of OALA will increase by 4.4 per cent (from the current monthly rate of $2,390 to $2,495), in accordance with the established mechanism with retrospective effect from February 1, 2016. As at end-December 2015, 429 244 elderly people benefitted from OALA, accounting for around 40 per cent of Hong Kong's elderly population aged 65 or above.
My reply to the Hon Chan Hak-kan's question is set out below.
(1) The number of applications received by the Social Welfare Department (SWD), the number of applications authorised and the expenditure for allowance payments for each financial year since the launch of the GD Scheme in October 2013 are set out at Annex.
(2) According to a supplementary enquiry on Hong Kong older persons' experience in and aspiration for residing on the Mainland conducted by the Census and Statistics Department (C&SD) through the General Household Survey in early 2011, about 15 600 Hong Kong residents aged 65 or above having resided on the Mainland (referring to those Hong Kong residents staying on the Mainland for a period of at least one month in the past six months before the time of enumeration) usually resided in Fujian Province at the time of enumeration.
Guangdong Province is the preferred destination of Hong Kong residents who choose to retire on the Mainland. According to the aforementioned survey conducted by C&SD, of those Hong Kong residents aged 65 or above having resided on the Mainland, around 60 per cent (46 000 persons) usually resided in Guangdong Province. In addition, there are unique and close ties between Guangdong and Hong Kong in geographical, economic and social terms. Given the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Framework and with the completion of a number of major transport infrastructure projects, the two places have become more closely integrated and travel has become more convenient. We currently have no plan to extend the coverage of the GD Scheme to other places but will continue monitoring the implementation of GD Scheme while consolidating experience.
(3) The OALA was launched in April 2013. We will continue monitoring the implementation of OALA. We have no plan to extend OALA to Guangdong Province (or any other places outside Hong Kong) at this stage.
Ends/Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Issued at HKT 20:06
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