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The Hong Kong government will spend about 3 billion HKD in the coming financial year to tackle poverty, according to the city's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, including launching the long overdue low income family allowance and increasing the amount of old age allowance.
Leung delivered his second policy address on Wednesday after taking office in July 2012, to list out more than 160 new policy initiatives of his administration over the coming year.
Chief to his speech is the introduction a Low-income Working Family Allowance, to help keep low-income families from falling into the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) safety net.
"Despite the protection offered by the statutory minimum wage, many grassroots workers, as the sole breadwinners of families, still bear a heavy financial burden. Providing them with suitable assistance and encouraging them to remain employed will help keep them from falling into the CSSA safety net."Leung said.
He added that special attention must be paid to the children and youths of these families and offering them appropriate support promotes upward mobility and breaks the vicious cycle of inter- generational poverty.
Leung said the annual expenditure involved is estimated to be around 3 billion HK dollars. More than 200,000 low-income families with 710,000 members, including 180, 000 eligible children and young people, will benefit from the allowance.
From April, the government will also progressively regualarise seven programmes under the Community Care Fund (CCF) that will benefit primary and secondary students in need, underprivileged students pursuing eligible programmes below sub-degree level, CSSA recipients who are Tenants Purchase Scheme flat owners, eligible children on the waiting list for subvented pre-school rehabilitation services and persons with severe physical disabilities living in the community and requiring constant care.
To support the elderly, the Chief Executive said he would ask the Elderly Commission to prepare an Elderly Services Programme Plan within two years.
He said the Government would inject 10 billion HKD into the Lotteries Fund to support the smooth running of the Special Scheme on Privately Owned Sites for Welfare Uses.
The Scheme encourages social welfare organizations to make better use of their land, especially to provide additional facilities for elderly and rehabilitation services.
"Based on the rough estimates of these organizations, the Scheme will provide about 17 000 additional service places for the elderly and persons with disabilities," said Mr Leung.
Another initiative is to incorporate the Elderly Health Care Voucher Pilot Scheme into the regular assistance programme and to double the annual voucher amount to 2,000 HKD within this year.
The Government has also earmarked about 800 HKD million for a total of 3 000 vouchers for the elderly for residential care services to be introduced in phases. The Elderly Commission will conduct a study on the proposed voucher scheme this year.
The Chief Executive said the Government will explore the feasibility of extending the Old Age Living Allowance to eligible Hong Kong people residing in Guangdong, having regard to the operating experience gained from the implementation of the Guangdong Scheme which covers the Old Age Allowance.
The Government will also purchase residential care places from an elderly home run by a Hong Kong non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Shenzhen to provide an option for the elderly on the Central Waiting List for subsidised residential care places.
"We are also discussing similar arrangements with another elderly home in Zhaoqing run by a Hong Kong NGO," Mr Leung said.
A new service centre to support the ethnic minority community will also be established in Kwai Tsing by the Home Affairs Department.
The Chief Executive also unveiled a list of 12 proposals to support persons with disabilities.
These include measures to strengthen co-operation between relevant bureaux and departments, regularise the Pilot Bought Place Scheme for Private Residential Care Homes for Persons with Disabilities, promote employment and internship opportunities for persons with disabilities, inject 200 million HKD into the Hong Kong Paralympians Fund and extend the Public Transport Fare Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities to include eligible children under the age of 12 starting from the first half of this year.
Asked whether splashing out on the handsome amount from the reserves is against the rule stated in de facto constitution Basic Law that the government "shall follow the principle of keeping the expenditure within the limits of revenues in drawing up its budget, and strive to achieve a fiscal balance",
He said albeit the government has the constitutional responsibility to uphold the rule, the government must live within its means, regardless of the pile of fiscal reserves and assets, in addition to generating fiscal surpluses in recent years.
