Hong Kong welfare chief Law Chi-kwong says latest relief measures aimed at the elderly and low-income people will pose a burden on city’s coffers
- But he says financial pressure on the government will decrease gradually due to a slower growth of the elderly expenses from next decade
- Elderly Commission chairman Lam Ching-choi says the new measures reflect a change in the administration’s attitude in governing following the protests
Hong Kong’s welfare chief admitted on Wednesday that the latest relief measures aimed at the city’s elderly and low-income groups would pose a financial burden on the government, but argued the pressure would ease over time due to slower expected growth in the elderly expenses from next decade.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chi-kwong was referring to a plan to combine two old-age living allowance schemes into one subsidy worth HK$3,585 (US$461) a month, giving 50,000 recipients of the scheme an extra HK$910 per month.
About 100,000 more senior citizens are expected to become eligible for the allowance after the government raised the asset limit for the recipients to HK$500,000. The revamp will cost an extra HK$5 billion a year.
The new initiative has been described as “close to a universal pension scheme” by a cabinet member.
It was part of a HK$10 billion-a-year, 10-measure welfare package Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor unveiled on Tuesday to ease the burden on the city’s poor and elderly amid the economic downturn, which has been intensified by the civil unrest that has rocked Hong Kong since June.
