Following is a question by the Hon Maggie Chan and a reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, in the Legislative Council today (February 4):

Question:

     It has been reported that the Housing Department and the Social Welfare Department launched a pilot scheme in Kwun Tong and Sha Tin in July last year to assist District Services and Community Care Teams (Care Teams) in identifying and supporting singleton or doubleton elderly households more accurately by consolidating data from both departments. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(1) of the progress of the Care Teams' work of supporting elderly people in these two pilot districts since the commencement of the pilot scheme, including the number of indoor or wearable Emergency Alarm Systems (commonly known as "ping on bell") that have been provided with their assistance so far, and whether it has plans to introduce other gerontechnology products for use by elderly people and extend the pilot scheme to the 18 districts across the territory;

(2) whether the data consolidated under the pilot scheme include information such as family members of elderly people, health conditions of elderly people, their demand for community support and their situation of receiving government assistance; of the government department currently responsible for data analysis and coordination; and

(3) whether it will expeditiously establish a comprehensive "singleton and doubleton elderly family" database integrated with a comparative analysis of data from government departments and public bodies such as the Social Welfare Department, the Housing Department and the Hospital Authority, so as to better assist singleton and doubleton elderly families; if so, of the timetable; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:
 
President,
 
     The Government implements a variety of measures to provide subsidised community care and support services for elderly persons in need, including day care services for the elderly, home care and support services, and the Community Care Service Voucher Scheme for the Elderly. At the same time, as carers play an important role in supporting elderly persons and persons with disabilities living in the community, the Government has spared no effort to strengthen support for carers of elderly persons and carers of persons with disabilities so as to alleviate their physical and mental stress, and enable care recipients to be looked after in a more comprehensive manner.
 
     I will now elaborate on the relevant policy measures, and provide a consolidated response to various parts of the question raised by the Hon Maggie Chan.
 
District Services and Community Care Teams – Scheme on Supporting Elderly and Carers
 
     With a view to identifying households of singleton and doubleton elderly persons, carers of elderly persons and carers of persons with disabilities in need, the Government launched the District Services and Community Care Teams – Scheme on Supporting Elderly and Carers (the Scheme) in March 2024 on a pilot basis in Tsuen Wan and Southern District, and extended the Scheme to all 18 districts of Hong Kong in April 2025. As at end-December 2025, more than 450 Care Teams across the territory had visited or contacted under the Scheme over 79 000 households of singleton and doubleton elderly persons, carers of elderly persons and carers of persons with disabilities in need, provided them with care and support, and made service referrals. Among these households, more than 2 700 of them successfully received subsidies for installation and service of the emergency alarm system (EAS).

Gerontechnology

     Meanwhile, the Government has been promoting wider application of gerontechnology and rehabilitation care technology in society. The Government allocated $1 billion in 2018 for setting up the Innovation and Technology Fund for Application in Elderly and Rehabilitation Care (I&T Fund) to subsidise eligible elderly and rehabilitation service units to procure, rent or trial use technology products, with a view to improving the quality of life of service users and reducing the burden and stress on care staff and carers. As I mentioned in my written reply to the Legislative Council two weeks ago, the Government injected an additional $1 billion into the I&T Fund in 2024-25, enabling eligible community elderly and rehabilitation service units to apply for the procurement of suitable technology products, so that elderly persons and their carers can borrow these products and use them at home, thereby extending the application of technology products for household use.

     As announced in the Chief Executive's 2025 Policy Address, the Labour and Welfare Bureau (LWB) will install, on a pilot basis, intelligent accident detection systems for 300 high-risk carer households, including households with elderly persons or persons with disabilities, this year to strengthen support to carers with a view to achieving real-time detection, early intervention and prompt assistance. We expect to announce the detailed arrangements in the first quarter of this year the earliest, and will strive to complete installation in or before the third quarter. Households participating in the pilot project will be exempted from all fees. We will commission a university to evaluate the effectiveness of this project, which will serve as a reference for continuous implementation of, and adjustments or improvements to the measure in future.

Carer Support Data Platform

     Regarding the Carer Support Data Platform, the LWB and the Social Welfare Department (SWD) launched two pilot schemes in July 2025. The first one, which is mentioned in Question (1), involves collaboration with the Housing Department (HD). This scheme aims to establish a community support network for high-risk groups which have yet to receive social welfare service support.  By consolidating data from both departments, we have identified high-risk households comprising singleton or doubleton elderly persons that are relatively older and lack community support, as well as high-risk households of carers of elderly persons and carers of persons with disabilities. We have then deployed Care Teams to contact and visit these households, and provide them with care and suitable support. In September 2025, we extended this pilot scheme from Kwun Tong and Sha Tin to all 18 districts of Hong Kong. As at end-December 2025, Care Teams had contacted or visited over 27 000 high-risk households, made over 1 800 welfare service referrals, and assisted them in applying for EAS as needed under the scheme. Some of these applications were counted in the aforementioned 2 700 households which successfully received subsidies for installation and service of EAS.  

     The other pilot scheme is relevant to the database mentioned in Question (3). We established the first phase of the Carer Support Data Platform in July 2025, with the objective to provide emergency support to hospitalised carers and assist them in looking after their care recipient at home. We have initially connected data from the SWD, the Hospital Authority (HA) and the HD for this purpose. When the SWD learns from HA's notification mechanism that a carer is hospitalised and hence the relevant household may be at care risk, the SWD will arrange staff to proactively contact the care recipient and provide emergency support tailored to their needs, such as respite services and meal delivery services, to achieve early intervention. As at end-December 2025, the SWD had contacted over 3 100 carer cases, with three cases identified as cases requiring immediate emergency support. For the remaining cases, the SWD provided them with contact details of social welfare units so that support for care recipients could be provided when needed.

     In future, the Government will systematise the relevant database and progressively expand its coverage, and the next target is to include high-risk households living in Hong Kong Housing Society public rental units and "three-nil" buildings.

Ends/Wednesday, February 4, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:52

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