Cash Handouts Won't Help Youth: Economics Expert

An academic from the University of Hong Kong said on Thursday that the government should work on providing better career prospects for young people instead of giving them cash handouts in the upcoming budget, in order to tackle the problem of youth unemployment.

Lawmakers from various parties have called for cash handouts in the budget, although the government has hinted that this won't happen.

Vera Yuen, an assistant economics lecturer, said short-term measures such as rent subsidies don’t really help in any case.

Instead, she said the government should encourage young people to be trained in careers like nursing, which are facing a manpower shortage.

Yuen also said that more work needs to be done starting from childhood to remove “inter-generational inequality”.

She told RTHK's Janice Wong that the government should provide more subsidies for poorer families, to reduce the difference in earnings later in life between those who come from disadvantaged families and those from richer backgrounds.