Sizing up poverty in Hong Kong
Carrie Lam says setting Hong Kong's first official poverty line is only the start of the massive work of providing targeted, effective help to ensure the fruits of economic growth are shared by all
Publication of Hong Kong's first official poverty line at the Commission on Poverty summit on Saturday marked a significant step forward in poverty-alleviation work. As chairwoman of the commission, I am indebted to members for their hard work in the past 10 months.
As the chief executive has said, the government has a duty to assist the poor. To ensure we do a proper job, he gave the commission the task of drawing a poverty line which is credible and generally accepted, locally and internationally. The consensus reached reflects a wish to better understand the poverty situation and an earnest desire to provide clear policy direction for poverty-alleviation measures.
The official poverty line has three functions: it measures and analyses poverty here; facilitates evidence-based policymaking; and, assesses the effectiveness of policy intervention.
The poverty line is defined as half of the median monthly household income of all domestic households in Hong Kong, prior to government intervention like tax and social benefits transfers. This approach is based on the concept of relative poverty, as opposed to absolute poverty expressed in terms of basic subsistence.
The commission considers that, in an affluent city like Hong Kong, poverty can no longer be understood merely by the lack of ability to afford minimum subsistence. Relative poverty acknowledges that the definition of poverty should move with the times. This is in line with the government's thinking that we should put in place a reasonable and sustainable social support system for all to share the fruits of economic development.
For 2012, the poverty line was HK$3,600 for a single person, HK$7,700 for a two-person household, HK$11,500 for a three-person household, HK$14,300, HK$14,800 and HK$15,800 for a family of four, five, and six and above respectively. As a result, Hong Kong's poor population last year was around 1.02 million (403,000 households), representing a poverty rate of 15.2 per cent. These poverty thresholds will be reviewed annually in line with the median monthly household income movement.
