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HKFP
26-05-2025
- Business
- HKFP
Hong Kong to cut subsidy scheme for families waiting for public housing, despite NGO's call
Hong Kong authorities have said they will not extend a trial subsidy scheme for people waiting for public housing, despite warnings from an NGO that ending the benefits would impose a financial burden on the poor. The Society for Community Organization (SoCO) said in a press conference on Sunday that its survey of 330 households found that over 40 per cent received the Cash Allowance Trial Scheme. According to SoCO's findings, the scheme helped nearly 70 per cent of recipients move to a better living environment. It also supported their food and medical expenses, as well as costs associated with their children's education. Launched in 2021, the scheme provides a monthly allowance for households that have been waiting for public rental housing for over three years and are not receiving the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme, a subsidy programme for low-income families. Recipients of the trial scheme receive between HK$1,300 and HK$3,900 a month, depending on the size of their households. In May, the government said the scheme would conclude at the end of June. In response to media enquiries, the Housing Bureau said on Sunday that the scheme would end as planned. The bureau said the first batch of flats under the Light Public Housing scheme – which provides rental accommodation for households that have been waiting for public housing for at least three years – has been completed, with move-ins having started in March. The second batch of flats will begin move-ins at the end of June. Given that beneficiaries can soon occupy these transitional housing flats, as well as the government's need to be prudent in public spending, the government has no intention of continuing the scheme, the bureau added. 305,000 recipients As of the end of February, a total of around 110,000 eligible households – or about 305,000 people – had benefited from the Cash Allowance Trial Scheme, the government said. The scheme's expenditure was around HK$5.56 billion. The scheme has already been extended for one year past its expiry date. When it was launched in 2021, the government said it would run on a three-year trial basis, with an expected end date in mid-2024. Last year, the government said it would prolong the scheme for one year until June 2025 to 'help grassroots families on the waiting list for public rental housing.' In its press release, SoCO urged the authorities to help the city's poor 'weather the hard times' and to extend the scheme. The group said that the Light Public Housing scheme would offer only 55,000 units when completed, far fewer than the number of households receiving the cash allowance. It added that more than 80 per cent of the units would only be completed between the last quarter of this year and the last quarter of next year. During the annual budget address in February, the city's financial chief Paul Chan announced that the city had logged an estimated HK$87.2 billion deficit, marking the third shortfall in a row. SoCO acknowledged the government's aims to lower spending, but emphasised that the beneficiaries of such welfare schemes were grassroots families. 'Any consideration to cancel this program must be handled with greater caution, as it cannot be assessed solely from a financial perspective,' SoCO wrote in Chinese. ' The social impact of the program should not be disregarded.'
HKFP
02-05-2025
- Business
- HKFP
Hong Kong minimum wage rises to HK$42.10 as use of pension funds for severance pay ends
Hong Kong has raised its statutory minimum wage to HK$42.10, coinciding with the official end of a controversial arrangement that allowed firms to dip into pension funds for severance payments. The 5.3 per cent increase from HK$40 in hourly base pay took effect on Thursday, when Hong Kong marked the annual International Labour Day. Labour groups and NGOs in the city, however, say that the new minimum wage still fails to meet basic living needs, and the monthly income of a full-time minimum wage worker is less than the amount the government hands out to a two-person household under the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme. The government also officially scrapped the policy that allowed employers to offset long service and severance payments with mandatory contributions under the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) system. Labour unions in Hong Kong had fought for the abolition of the offsetting mechanism for around two decades after the MPF scheme was rolled out in 2000. They criticised the system for depleting workplace pensions and, in some cases, leaving retirees with too little to live on. The official end of the offsetting arrangement came almost three years after lawmakers passed a bill in June 2022 to amend the Employment and Retirement Schemes Legislation. Improving labour rights is the responsibility of the government, Deputy Chief Secretary Cheuk Wing-hing told reporters after a Labour Day event on Thursday. He noted that raising the minimum pay and cancelling the offsetting arrangement on Thursday marked a 'very special day of historical significance.' Cheuk went on to say that the government also changed the review of the minimum wage from every two years to annually. This will allow the pay to better reflect changes in the socio-economic landscape and provide better income security for low-income groups, he said. 'Ensuring good job security for workers is the government's duty, and we will continue our efforts in this regard. We hope that through the joint efforts of employees, employers, and the government, we can enhance the welfare of workers across Hong Kong,' Cheuk said in Cantonese. Hong Kong first introduced the statutory minimum wage in 2011. Before the increase on Thursday, it was last adjusted in 2023 after a four-year freeze.
South China Morning Post
27-04-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Why are Hong Kong's elderly slow to accept subsidised mainland care home spaces?
Living alone and relying on a cane to walk, 74-year-old Hongkonger Fan Chuen-tat plans to move into a care home as he grows older. Advertisement But he said he intended to leave the city and settle in a care facility in Guangdong province, drawn by the promise of bigger living spaces and lower costs across the border. An expanded government scheme to subsidise care for elderly Hongkongers living in homes in the mainland Chinese province, as well as new incentives such as monthly allowances, have appealed to the former construction worker, who survives on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance payments of about HK$6,000 (US$773) a month. 'The mainland has bigger living spaces, unlike smaller, more expensive Hong Kong,' said Fan, who currently lives in a 200 sq ft (18.6 square metres) public housing flat in Yau Tong. He is divorced and has lost contact with his three adult sons, who have their own families. Despite being willing to uproot, Fan said he still had concerns and remained hesitant. Advertisement 'What will happen to us if we have emergencies and have to return to Hong Kong for treatment? What if the services across the border are not good? What if we cannot adapt to the new environment?' he said. 'It is, after all, a big decision to make.'
