Welfare Expert Says CE Has Made 'another Mistake'

Welfare expert Nelson Chow said on Saturday that Chief Executive Carrie Lam has made "another mistake" with a new allowance for people who miss out when the minimum age for elderly welfare payments goes up from 60 to 65.

The retired academic, who has advised the government in the past on retirement protection, said the "employment support allowance" is misnamed, because few people aged 60 to 64 who are claiming social security can find jobs.

Chow also said the payment should be HK$2,000 a month higher, to replace medical subsidies provided under the social security scheme for the elderly.

Lam announced the subsidy at a press conference on Friday, after more than a week of public backlash over the move to raise the age requirement for the welfare payment.

But the chief executive maintained that she was not "backing down, or yielding to pressure or being populist". She said this was instead a correction of what she admitted were mistakes in the implementation process.

She added she would have announced the subsidy sooner if she had been aware of the potential effect of the policy change on elderly people.