Govt Rules Out Further Relaxation Of Subsidy Scheme

The Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Law Chi-kwong, on Monday rejected legislators' demands to further relax the threshold for a subsidy for low-income families.

The government has proposed reducing the minimum working hour requirements for the basic and medium Working Family Allowances (WFA) for a year, to help people who are underemployed during the pandemic.

Instead of a minimum of 144 hours per week, a non-single parent household will be able to get the HK$1,000 basic allowance if they work 72 hours between them, with extra subsidies if they have children.

The government says it expects an additional 24,000 households will benefit from the change.

At an online meeting of Legco's welfare panel, tourism sector councillor Yiu Si-wing asked if the government would consider granting extra allowances to households with elderly members, not just those with children.

But the welfare chief said Yiu's proposal would turn the WFA into another Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) scheme.

"CSSA will take into account of all persons living together in the household, including those who are unemployed as well as elderly persons. So the design is very different. If we change the nature of WFA to consider family based needs, then we are changing it to CSSA," Law said.

Federation of Trade Unions' lawmaker Luk Chung-hung questioned why the minimum working hours for the higher allowance isn't being relaxed, from the current 192 hours to 176 for example.

But Law said the level is reasonable as it can be easily reached by full-time workers.

The relief measures are expected to be rolled out on June 1 and will be effective for one year, as long as the Legislative Council's finance committee approves the plan.