People Twisting Poverty Figures To Scold Us: Govt

Labour and Welfare Secretary Law Chi-kwong complained on Thursday that people have deliberately misinterpreted poverty data announced by the administration just so they can "scold the government".

Official figures released on Wednesday showed that 21.4 percent, or 1.49 million Hong Kong people, had household incomes below the poverty line last year, up one percentage point from the previous year.

The number exceeded the previous record in 2009, when the rate was at 20.6 percent, and the government said that protesters and the Sino-US trade tensions were to blame for the increase.

But speaking to RTHK on Thursday, Law said it is “incorrect” to look at that figure, because it doesn't take into account financial assistance offered by the government.

“It doesn’t tell us how many people are actually living under the poverty line. It tells us if the government does nothing at all, then how many people will be living in poverty. And it also tells us the impact of the downturn of the economy and its impact on the different sectors of the community”, he said.

“It is just a figure derived in theory. In reality, we do have government assistance, such as CSSA and employment subsidies as well as other relief measures”, Law explained, adding that people who quoted this “wrong figure” only had one aim in mind, and that was to “scold the government”.

The welfare chief stressed that if people factor in government assistance, less than half of these people - or around 640,000 - are actually living below the poverty line, down 0.1 percent from 2018.

When asked about the 2020 poverty situation, Law said he expects there to have been an increase in the number of poor people, but stressed that the government has done a lot to provide them with relief.