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How Hong Kong’s war on poverty can be won
Paul Yip says even though policy intervention has had some effect on poverty rates, real change requires a better job market and training to boost income levels among the poorest, along with a combination of community effort and visionary government planning
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The latest Commission on Poverty report reveals that the poverty rate in Hong Kong – or the number of households earning less than half the median household income – went up slightly, from 19.75 per cent in 2015 to 19.9 per cent last year. The number of people in poverty rose by 7,000, whereas the city’s population increased from 7.29 million to 7.34 million in 2015-2016. Counting the government’s recurrent cash benefits, the poverty rate dropped from 19.9 per cent to 14.7 per cent in 2016.
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The Hong Kong government has spent considerable resources on achieving this reduction. Nevertheless, the continued increase in the number of older-adult and single-parent households has brought extra difficulties, as their poverty rate is worse than that of the general population.
Groups contributing more to the poverty rate rise included singleton households aged 65-74 and 75 or over, and three- and four-people households with young people aged 15-24. But a very notable reduction in poverty among four- or five-people households with children under 14 was observed.
The increase in poverty among households with young people can be related to unemployment, especially among early school leavers, and the improvement among large households should be linked with the government’s targeted subsidy for poorer families with young children, the Low-income Working Family Allowance.
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