Following is a question by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung and a written reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, in the Legislative Council today (November 30):

Question :

     In May this year, the Government rolled out the Low-income Working Family Allowance Scheme (LIFA Scheme) with an aim to relieve the financial burden of working-poor families. Some members of the public have relayed to me that the application threshold for LIFA Scheme is too high, resulting in quite a number of low-income families not submitting applications as they are ineligible, or their applications being rejected. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the following since the launch of LIFA Scheme:

(1) the number of applications rejected by the authorities, and set out in the table below a breakdown by reason for rejection;
 

Reasons for rejection	Number of applications
Family members' days of absence from Hong Kong have exceeded the limit
The applicant has worked less than the required hours per month
The applicant has failed to provide the necessary information (e.g. income proof)
The family income has exceeded the limit
Other reasons
Total

(2) the number of applications received by the authorities from non-single-parent families, as well as the respective numbers of such applications for which (i) full-rate Higher Allowance and (ii) full-rate Basic Allowance have been granted;

(3) the number of applications received by the authorities from single-parent families, as well as the respective numbers of such applications for which (i) half-rate Higher Allowance and (ii) half-rate Basic Allowance have been granted;

(4) the number of applications received by the authorities from ethnic minority families, as well as the respective numbers of such applications for which (i) full-rate Higher Allowance and (ii) half-rate Basic Allowance have been granted;

(5) the number of applications received by the authorities from self-employed persons, as well as the number of such applications for which allowance has been granted; the reasons for some of the applications being rejected; and

(6) the number of applications approved by the authorities, together with a tabulated breakdown by (i) District Council district in which the applicant resides, and (ii) whether the applicant has any family member aged below 15 or aged between 15 and 21 receiving full-time education?

Reply :

President,

     My reply to the question raised by the Hon Leung Yiu-chung is as follows:

(1) Since the implementation of the Low-income Working Family Allowance Scheme on May 3, 2016 up to mid-November 2016, the Working Family Allowance Office of the Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency received over 37 000 applications. Up to November 18, 2016, a total of 27 957 applications were approved the allowance while 2 945 applications were not approved the allowance, 1 722 applications were withdrawn and over 5 000 applications are being processed. The breakdown by reasons for not approving the allowance is as follows:
 

Reason for not approving the allowance	Number of cases
Breaching the Absence Rule	257
Failing to meet Working Hour Requirement	269
Exceeding the Income Limit	423
Exceeding the Asset Limit	61
Other reasons (mainly applications not further processed due to insufficient information)	1 935
Total	2 945

(2) and (3) As of mid-November 2016, around 32 000 applications were from non-single-parent families and around 5 000 applications were from single-parent families.

     Of the 27 957 applications approved, a breakdown of the applications by family status and the type of allowances approved is as follows:
 

Type	Non-single-parent families			Single-parent families			Total
	Full- Rate	Half- rate	Sub- total	Full- rate	Half- rate	Sub- total
Basic Allowance	2 177	492	2 669	137	9	146	2 815
Higher Allowance	16 963	4 978	21 941	2 439	762	3 201	25 142
Total	19 140	5 470	24 610	2 576	771	3 347	27 957

(4) As of mid-November 2016, based on preliminary vetting, there were over 900 applications from families of ethnic minorities. Among them, 717 applications were approved the allowance while 122 applications were not approved the allowance, 47 applications were withdrawn and over 40 applications are being processed. The breakdown of the approved applications by the type of allowances approved is as follows:
 

Type	Full-rate	Half-rate	Total
Basic Allowance	59	19	78
Higher Allowance	468	171	639
Total	527	190	717

(5) As of mid-November 2016, there were around 2 300 applications from self-employed persons, of which 1 845 applications were approved the allowance while 133 applications were not approved the allowance, 23 applications were withdrawn and over 300 applications are being processed. A breakdown by reasons for not approving the allowance is as follows:
 

Reason for not approving the allowance	Number of applications
Breaching the Absence Rule	13
Failing to meet Working Hour Requirement	11
Exceeding the Income Limit	14
Exceeding the Asset Limit	8
Other reasons	87
Total	133

(6) As at November 18, 2016, the breakdown of the 27 957 approved applications by residential districts is as follows:
 

Districts	Number of approved applications
Kwun Tong	3 617
Yuen Long	3 047
Kwai Tsing	2 793
Sham Shui Po	2 313
Tuen Mun	2 110
Sha Tin	1 976
Wong Tai Sin	1 895
Kowloon City	1 727
North	1 534
Eastern	1 288
Sai Kung	1 103
Tsuen Wan	1 011
Yau Tsim Mong	941
Tai Po	827
Southern	622
Islands	604
Central and Western	383
Wan Chai	166
Total	27 957

(7) As at November 18, 2016, of the 27 957 approved applications, a breakdown by the families with the Child Allowance granted and without the Child Allowance granted is as follows:
 

Type	Number of approved applications
Number of families with eligible child(ren) and are granted the Child Allowance	26 231
Number of families not granted the Child Allowance	1 726
Total	27 957

Ends/Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Issued at HKT 14:19

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