Help Hong Kong's working poor stay afloat

Developed countries like the US, Britain, Ireland and New Zealand all have low-income family subsidy schemes or tax credits to tackle poverty among the working poor and encourage people to find work. Yet in Hong Kong, a place that values the work ethic, there are no similar measures to support the more than 170,000 working poor families - equivalent to half the poor population. They try to be self-reliant, but still struggle to survive on less than the minimum deemed adequate to live on - that is, half the median household income.

In those developed countries, governments have recognised that many working parents earn meagre salaries in low-end service sector jobs that may not be enough to support a family. Hence the tax or welfare measures to help alleviate the financial burden.

Some measures have clearly been successful. For example, the non-partisan Centre on Budget and Policy Priorities in the US says the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit schemes together lifted 9.4 million people, including 4.9 million children, out of poverty in 2011 while encouraging large numbers of single parents to leave welfare for work.

These experiences reveal some of the best principles of such schemes. First, most measures are designed to alleviate some of the burden for families on low to moderate incomes, particularly those raising children. Second, eligible families need only fulfil requirements for the minimum number of working hours, and pass an income test. Third, the allowance increases with each additional child below the age of 18. Finally, the poorer the working families are, the higher their allowances.

Here in Hong Kong, we have the statutory minimum wage, yet this is insufficient to help lift families out of poverty. Worse still, rising inflation has offset much of the benefits of the wage. So it's not surprising that there has been no significant reduction in the number of working poor households; 171,400 in 2010 and 170,600 in the fourth quarter of last year.

How can those on a low income even maintain their living standards, let alone support a family?