OBJECTIVES
3.1

Social security in Hong Kong aims to meet the basic and special needs of members of the community who are in need of financial or material assistance.

 
 
SERVICE PROVISION
3.2

This objective is achieved through a non-contributory social security system administered by the Social Welfare Department (SWD). It comprises the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme, Social Security Allowance (SSA) Scheme, Criminal and Law Enforcement Injuries Compensation (CLEIC) Scheme, Traffic Accident Victims Assistance (TAVA) Scheme and Emergency Relief. Elderly CSSA recipients who meet the prescribed criteria can continue to receive cash assistance under the CSSA Scheme if they choose to retire permanently in Guangdong or Fujian Province in Mainland China. In addition, the Social Security Appeal Board, an independent body, handles appeals against SWD’s decisions on social security issues.

 
 
Support for Self-reliance Scheme
3.3

The Support for Self-reliance Scheme aims at encouraging and assisting employable CSSA recipients to take up paid employment and become self-reliant. The Scheme consists of three main components:

 
 
(a)

Active Employment Assistance Programme : through the provision of personalised employment assistance services provided by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) commissioned by SWD to help the unemployed recipients find full-time paid job.

 
(b)

Community Work Programme : arrangement of unpaid community work to help the unemployed recipients build up their self-esteem and work habit, and prepare them for rejoining the workforce in future.

 
(c)

Disregarded earnings : provision of an incentive, by disregarding part of their income, to encourage recipients to undertake paid employment while on CSSA.

 
 
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PERIOD
Targeted employment assistance for various employable CSSA recipients
3.4

To promote the concept of ‘from welfare to work’, SWD continued to strengthen employment assistance services for various groups of employable CSSA recipients to help them return to the workforce. In 2009-10 and 2010-11, SWD continued to commission NGOs to operate 60 projects under the Integrated Employment Assistance Scheme to provide ordinary and intensive employment assistance services to able-bodied unemployed CSSA recipients and help them secure full-time paid employment. To assist long-term CSSA unemployed youth aged between 15 and 29 to find full-time employment or return to mainstream schooling, SWD implemented the Special Training and Enhancement Programme which provided motivational training and intensive employment assistance services to the participants. In April 2010, the new phase of the New Dawn Project was launched to help CSSA single parents and child carers enhance their capacity for self-help and integration into the community through engagement in work as early as possible.

 
 
Provision of subsidy for Internet access charges
3.5

To reduce the financial burden of the low-income families in meeting the Internet access charges for e-learning of their children at home, SWD has assisted in providing a household-based cash subsidy for Internet access charges to CSSA families with child(ren) studying at full-time primary or secondary school in receipt of the flat-rate grant for school-related expenses starting from the 2010-11 school year. The full subsidy rate for the school year of 2010-11 is $1,300.

 
 
Provision of additional one-off assistance to social security recipients
3.6

To ease the pressure on social security recipients during the difficult time brought about by the global financial crisis, SWD provided one additional month of standard rate of CSSA payment for CSSA recipients and one additional month of allowance for Disability Allowance and Old Age Allowance recipients in August 2009. In June 2010, SWD also provided one additional month of standard rate of CSSA payment for CSSA recipients and one additional month of allowance for Disability Allowance recipients and Old Age Allowance recipients with the aim to alleviate the burden of social security recipients who have not yet benefited from the economic recovery.

 
 
Relaxation of the annual permissible limit of absence under Social Security Allowance Scheme
3.7

To take into account the wishes of some elder recipients to spend more time to travel or visit their friends and relatives outside Hong Kong without affecting their payment, the annual permissible limit of absence from Hong Kong for recipients of the Old Age Allowance and Disability Allowance under the SSA Scheme has been relaxed from 240 days to 305 days, and correspondingly the minimum residence period in Hong Kong for entitlement to permissible limit of absence has been reduced from 90 days to 60 days in each payment year since 1 February 2011.  If the recipient has resided in Hong Kong for not less than 60 days in the year, he will be eligible for full-year allowance.

 

Fraud Prevention
3.8 SWD continues its efforts to prevent and combat fraud and abuse against social security welfares. Aiming to prevent duplicate claim of public resources, the data matching with Education Bureau has been strengthened for the provision of CSSA for students in boarding placement of its special schools since 2010-11.