180,000 Seek Government's New Unemployment Subsidy

The government said on Saturday that almost 180,000 people have now applied for the new one-off jobless subsidy, since it opened for applications on Wednesday.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, Doris Ho, who heads the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office, says the number of applicants was "expected", and hopes these people can receive their HK$10,000 subsidy within three weeks of their applications.

But Ho rejected calls to roll out another round of unemployment subsidy for businesses that are still unable to reopen when social-distancing rules are relaxed next month.

It's not that we don't understand that people are struggling, but after all, this is "temporary" assistance for the unemployed," Ho said.

She said the government would be rolling out a new round of the employment support scheme in the future.

"Through this, we hope employers will get the message that the Covid situation is starting to stabilise, social-distancing rules will be relaxed in phases, and the government is providing them with wage subsidies for their workers from May to July...so that they'll keep staff on - and not fire them," she said.