No Curbs On HK$2 Ride Scheme: Govt

The labour and welfare secretary said there won't be travel restrictions for people aged between 60 and 64 under a HK$2 public transport subsidy scheme.

To reduce crowding during peak hours, transport authorities in London require those 60 and above to travel from 9am onwards if they want to get a free ride.

But welfare chief Law Chi-kwong said retirees in Hong Kong usually leave their homes one or two hours later than most workers, so time restrictions would not be fair to those who are still in the workforce.

"After looking at the data objectively, there is no need to make that restrictions," he told a press conference.

"We also see one of the implications of this scheme is that it actually encourages some of the people to continue working, although their wages may be lower before their retirement age... If you restrict the timing of using this card, this particular effect will disappear."

The idea to widen the HK$2 scheme, which is available only to those 65 or above now, was first announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam last year. The extended scheme is expected to benefit some 600,000 people in the 60-to-64 age group.

Law said earlier it would not be launched until the first quarter of 2022 at the earliest, citing efforts to prevent abuse.

Law said on Tuesday applications are expected to begin in the third quarter of this year for a new personalised elderly Octopus card being designed to tackle abuse.

"There's no need to hurry to apply for the personal card right now because for this scheme and what we are going to do is to design a new card so that it can be easily identifiable.

"Apart from having a photo, it's likely to have a name printed on it so that when we have to check whether there's a genuine use of that card by the right person, then we can double-check with the ID card together with the personal card," he said.

Officials refused to put a price tag on the extended scheme, saying it will be revealed in the budget next month.

A report from the government-appointed consultancy estimated that spending on the scheme would go up from HK$1.2 billion to HK$4.7 billion in 2031, an increase from 1.6 percent to 2.9 percent of the administration's social welfare expenditure.