Survey: HK young people pessimistic on youth poverty

Wong Cheong-win (left), leader of the research team and professor of Department of Social Work of Hong Kong Baptist University, explains the survey on "Hong Kong young people's opinion on youth poverty" at a press conference onMonday.

A survey shows that 84.8% of the young people believe that the problem of youth poverty will continue to worsen in the next decade in Hong Kong.

The survey comes as a local 2011 population consensus shows that there is a worsening trend of youth poverty, as 26.3% of Hong Kong young people receive a monthly income below HK$6000, an increase of 6.6% compared with that of 10 years ago.

The survey, involving 518 telephone interview respondents aged between 15 to 34, was conducted by Center for Youth Research and Practice of Hong Kong Baptist University.

Inflation, low salary as well as lack of individual competitiveness are listed as main causes leading to youth poverty.

In terms of ways to solve the problem, survey respondents said that society should provide more employment opportunities and job trainings, as well as favorable conditions to start their own business. They also hope the government should take the initiative to break the cycle of family poverty.

Meanwhile, survey respondents believe that they themselves also have a role to play in resolving youth poverty, including "improving individual competitiveness through continuous learning", and "reining in excessive personal spending."

"Based on the data from this survey, we find that young people believe solving poverty issue should mainly rely on social measures, which could then be used to drive individual motives," said Wong Cheong-win, leader of the research team and professor of Department of Social Work of Hong Kong Baptist University.

Wong suggested that while both government and youth themselves are key to addressing the problem, government should play a leading role through such measures like providing financial assistance for young people in higher education, enhancing job skills training as well as setting up the poverty line as soon as possible.