Enhanced welfare package will lift more than 27,000 people in Hong Kong out of poverty: Law Chi-kwong
- Welfare chief says the measures will lower poverty rate by 0.4 per cent
- The city’s total poor population hit 1,377,000 in 2017
Hong Kong’s welfare minister has hailed the “substantial changes” in social security provisions announced in this year’s policy address, claiming the basket of measures will lower the city’s poverty rate by 0.4 per cent, benefiting about 27,400 people.
In her third policy address on Wednesday, the chief executive focused heavily on housing and welfare relief initiatives designed to woo the city’s poor amid months-long anti-government protests and social discontent.
Hong Kong’s total poor population hit 1,377,000 in 2017, representing a poverty rate of 20.1 per cent and the highest in nine years, according to official figures. A one-person household is considered poor if it earns a monthly income of less than HK$4,000 (US$510), while the poverty line of a two-people household is estimated at HK$9,800.
Under the enhanced welfare package, all rates of working family allowance will be raised by 16.7 to 25 per cent. A four-person household with two children, for example, can claim up to HK$4,200 a month, up from HK$3,200.
“It is a substantial change in our social security system that will lift more people out of poverty, and encourage them into work,” said Law.
