CE Offers Subsidy To Offset CSSA Change

Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced a "compassionate" new subsidy on Friday to offset a controversial policy change in welfare payments which would have effectively reduced payouts for recipients aged 60 to 64.

Starting next month, a new monthly 'employment support supplement' of HK$1,060 will be given to welfare recipients in that age bracket.

Lam said this will completely offset what they would have lost under the new eligibility criteria for elderly welfare payments – which are higher than those for able-bodied adults. The minimum age of eligibility for these elderly payments will rise from 60 to 65 as of February 1.

Speaking at a press conference flanked by her welfare colleagues, Lam said the new payment will be given directly to recipients, who will not have to file any applications. She also said the new payment will not incur any extra administrative costs.

The move comes after a strong public backlash over the policy change. Even pro-government legislators harshly criticised the government for the shift, which they said the administration had sneaked into last year's budget.

Lam stressed that this is not a matter of "backing down, or yielding to pressure or being populist", but a correction of what she admitted were mistakes in the implementation process.

"What I’m saying and confessing today is in the actual implementation and planning, there is room for improvement," Lam said, "and today’s announcement [of] improvement measures [will] ensure more effective and more compassionate implementation of the policy initiatives."

The chief executive said she would have announced the new subsidy a long time ago if she had been aware of the potential effect the policy change would have on elderly people.

"But unfortunately, and you have to appreciate that as the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR, it is now no longer possible for me to be so hands on in every detail of implementation."

However, Lam stuck to her guns in insisting that the change to the eligibility age itself is no mistake, but a carefully considered move to better reflect Hong Kong's ageing population.

"The whole purpose of initiating this change is driven by population policy. It’s to respond to the general aspiration that we should extend people’s working life, which we had", Lam said.

Welfare secretary Law Chi-kwong agreed that changing the eligibility age from 60 to 65 is something that had to be done "sooner or later", and there is no justification to shelve the change. He reiterated that the policy shift "isn’t for the sake of saving money".

Lam said she has been hosting inter-departmental meetings almost every day in the past few days seeking to find an appropriate remedial measure to address the poor implementation.

The change in the eligibility criteria will not apply to elderly people who are already receiving elderly Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) payments, but only to those who turn 60 after February 1.

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