Relief measures coming on stream
2 June 2019
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Following the enactment of the Appropriation Bill 2019 by the Legislative Council (LegCo) last month, various relief measures have been gradually implemented by the Government. First of all, an extra one-month allowance at the standard rate is expected to be available to current recipients of social security payments (including the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA), the Old Age Allowance, the Disability Allowance and the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance) in two weeks’ time at the soonest (i.e. in mid-June), which will involve an expenditure of around $3.8 billion and benefit around 1.32 million people.
Recipients of the Working Family Allowance (WFA) and the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy (WITS) will also get an additional one month’s payment. It is expected that some 50 000 households and 30 000 people receiving the WFA and the WITS respectively will benefit, which will involve an additional expenditure of around $150 million.
As regards the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme, eligible elderly persons aged 65 or above are now provided with an annual voucher amount of $2,000 for using private primary healthcare services. As at the end of April 2019, over 1.25 million elderly persons had used their vouchers, accounting for about 95% of the eligible elderly population in Hong Kong. This year, each eligible elderly person will have a one-off additional $1,000 voucher amount in late June, and the accumulation limit of the vouchers will also be increased from $5,000 to $8,000 as a regular measure. This will involve an estimated expenditure of about $1.024 billion, benefitting over 1.3 million elderly persons.
There are also a number of relief measures for students. Eligible needy students will each receive a one-off grant of $2,500. The grant will be available starting from the third quarter of 2019, covering 360 000 students and involving $893 million.
I am very pleased that, on the day before yesterday (31 May), the LegCo Finance Committee endorsed the Government’s proposal to pay, as a one-off concessionary measure, the examination fees for all school candidates sitting for the 2020 Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination. It will benefit about 46 000 students, involving an estimated expenditure of $160 million. For a school candidate sitting for six subjects, i.e. two language subjects and four other subjects, the amount of examination fees payable by the Government will be $3,132.
To encourage the public to better equip themselves, the Government has injected an additional amount of $10 billion into the Continuing Education Fund and implemented enhancement measures since 1 April this year, which include doubling the subsidy ceiling to $20,000 per applicant and relaxing the upper age limit for applicants from 65 to 70.
On rates concession, there are concessions on a quarterly basis starting from April this year (2019) up to the end of March next year (2020), subject to a ceiling of $1,500 per quarter for each rateable property.
The Public Transport Fare Subsidy Scheme, which took effect from 1 January 2019, helps ease the fare burden on commuters whose public transport expenses are relatively high. During the first four months of implementation, around 2.35 million, 1.94 million, 2.36 million and 2.18 million commuters received the subsidies totalling over $600 million. Starting from the 16th of each month, commuters can collect the public transport fare subsidy of the previous month. The subsidy of each month is valid for collection within three months.
I would like to mention that since there are 320 000 commuters who have not collected the subsidy for January 2019 within the subsidy collection period, the Government has introduced a temporary special arrangement under which commuters can apply through the Scheme hotline (2969 5500) for claiming the expired subsidy by 15 June 2019. (Applications submitted after that date will not be accepted.)
A number of policy measures and one-off relief measures have been introduced by the Government to help grass-roots families cope with the pressure of daily life. Let me illustrate this with an example.
Let us say there is an application from a grass-roots household of five members comprising a father with a full-time job (i.e. 192 working hours per month), a stay-at-home mother, two children attending secondary schools with one of them being a school candidate sitting for the HKDSE Examination next year and a 70-year-old grandmother receiving the Higher OALA. The monthly income of this family is $21,000 and their assets are valued at $570,000.
According to the calculation method of the WFA, the father is eligible for the Higher Allowance (i.e. $1,200), while both of his two children meet the eligibility criteria for receiving the Child Allowance (i.e. $1,000 per person and $2,000 in total per month). Besides, the grandmother is eligible for the Higher OALA, which is $3,585 per month. (As at April 2019, among the 540 000 elderly persons receiving the OALA, around 90% (about 490 000) are recipients of the Higher OALA, i.e. $3,585 per month, and the remaining 10% (about 50 000) are recipients of the Normal OALA, i.e. $2,675 per month.)
This grass-roots household may receive an extra one-month WFA of $3,200. Together with the extra $3,585 monthly Higher OALA received by the grandmother, the household may receive an additional amount of $6,785.
Taking into account the student grant of $5,000 received by the two children ($2,500 x 2 persons) and the $3,132 examination fee payable by the Government for one of the children who is a school candidate sitting for the HKDSE Examination (for two language subjects and four other subjects), making a sub-total of $8,132, this grass-roots household may receive an additional amount of $14,917 ($6,785+$8,132) in total.
Around 60% of the Government’s annual recurrent expenditure goes to three livelihood areas, namely education, healthcare and welfare. For the financial year 2019-20, the related expenditure is around 255.5 billion, representing an increase of around 7.7% over the previous year. Compared to the past two financial years, the average annual growth rates in the recurrent expenditures on education, healthcare and welfare are 6.3%, 13.5% and 13.6% respectively.
The current-term Government is committed to building a caring, inclusive and equal society. As the Chinese saying goes, “no livelihood issue is too trivial”. The Government attaches great importance to livelihood issues at both the macro and the micro levels to address the people’s urgent needs.
Since the Chief Executive assumed office, she has delivered two Policy Addresses proposing nearly 500 policy initiatives covering various areas, including better governance, housing and land supply, development of a diversified economy, improving people’s livelihood, nurturing talent, building a liveable city and connecting with young people. In less than two years, the current-term Government has made good progress with initial achievements in a number of areas.
As at early May, around 12%, or 29, of the 240 or so policy initiatives set out in the 2018 Policy Address have been implemented, while the remaining 85% or so of the initiatives are progressing as planned.
So far, a number of relief measures have been implemented one by one. The current-term Government will continue to take a pragmatic approach to “care”, “listen” and “act” while being “innovative”, “interactive” and “collaborative” in implementing its policy initiatives proactively. The Chief Executive, the whole politically accountable team and the 170 000-strong civil service will spare no effort in serving our society, addressing the problems faced by the people and striving for their well-being. We will continue to leverage the unique advantages of “two systems” while upholding the principle of “one country”, with a view to enhancing economic development and improving people’s livelihood.
