LCQ13: Measures for elderly residents to retire in the Mainland
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Question:
It is learnt that moving north for retirement has become a growing trend in recent years, and the Government has been proactively promoting cross-border elderly care measures to facilitate retirement of Hong Kong elderly residents in cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective latest numbers of participants in the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong and the Pilot Scheme for Elderly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Recipients to Reside in Residential Care Homes in Guangdong;
(2) of the respective numbers of Hong Kong elderly residents currently living in GBA Mainland cities who are receiving (i) Comprehensive Social Security Assistance, (ii) Old Age Allowance, and (iii) Old Age Living Allowance;
(3) whether it has considered establishing an integrated cross-border elderly care information platform to facilitate elderly residents who wish to retire in GBA Mainland cities and their families in accessing more comprehensive and up-to-date policy information and service guidelines; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(4) whether it has conducted any survey on the needs of Hong Kong middle-class elderly residents seeking to retire in the Mainland (including healthcare and everyday needs), and explored how to provide such elderly residents with high-quality elderly care services (such as smart elderly care); if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
The Government continues to implement a number of measures, including providing subsidised residential care services and portable cash assistance, to facilitate Hong Kong elderly people's retirement in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Mainland municipalities and offer more choices for them. I reply to the question raised by Dr the Hon Dennis Lam as follows:
(1) As at end-April 2025, there were around 460 elderly persons joining the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong (GDRCS Scheme) and staying in the 15 designated residential care homes for the elderly (RCHEs) in the GBA Mainland cities.
The three-year Pilot Scheme for Elderly Recipients of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) to Reside in Residential Care Homes in Guangdong (Pilot Scheme) will be launched in the second half of 2025 to subsidise elderly CSSA recipients who opt to retire in Guangdong and reside in designated RCHEs in the province, so as to improve their living environment and quality of life. Each eligible elderly person will receive a monthly subsidy of HK$5,000 with a quota of 1 000.
(2) As at end-April 2025, the numbers of elderly persons living in GBA Mainland cities and receiving Portable Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (PCSSA), Old Age Allowance (OAA) or Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) are set out in the table below:
| GBA Mainland cities |
PCSSA | OAA | OALA | Sub-total |
| Guangzhou | 62 | 1 720 | 2 353 | 4 135 |
| Shenzhen | 141 | 2 652 | 5 693 | 8 486 |
| Zhuhai | 9 | 430 | 639 | 1 078 |
| Foshan | 53 | 605 | 1 330 | 1 988 |
| Huizhou | 60 | 399 | 1 180 | 1 639 |
| Dongguan | 61 | 980 | 2 268 | 3 309 |
| Zhongshan | 18 | 868 | 1 412 | 2 298 |
| Jiangmen | 23 | 328 | 922 | 1 273 |
| Zhaoqing | 12 | 105 | 228 | 345 |
| Total | 439 | 8 087 | 16 025 | 24 551 |
(3) Apart from promoting the GDRCS Scheme to the general public through various means (e.g. District Elderly Community Centres/Neighbourhood Elderly Centres, radio and TV promotion clips), information on the GDRCS Scheme and the portable cash assistance is available on the Social Welfare Department's (SWD) website. The SWD updates relevant information in a timely manner and will consider optimising the website to facilitate access to relevant information by the public. Besides, the application procedures of the OAA and the OALA under the Guangdong Scheme are available on the "Cross-boundary Public Services" website. The SWD will consider including the information on the GDRCS Scheme in the relevant website.
(4) As the various needs of Hong Kong's middle-class elderly people living on the Mainland are not under the policy purview of the Labour and Welfare Bureau, we have not conducted any relevant surveys. Upon our enquiry, other bureaux or departments (e.g. the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau and the Census and Statistics Department) have advised that they have not conducted such surveys either.
Ends/Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Issued at HKT 11:15
Issued at HKT 11:15
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