Proactive, progressive and pragmatic first half

4 January 2015

Entering 2015, the current-term Government has completed the first half of its tenure, just like reaching the half time of a soccer match. Right from the beginning of the match, the Labour and Welfare Bureau has pressed ahead at full steam and left no stones unturned in the areas of poverty alleviation, elderly care and support for the disadvantaged – all in line with the policy directives of the Chief Executive. Adopting a proactive, progressive and pragmatic strategy, we have formulated policies for improving people’s livelihood and provided more effective and better service to the needy with a view to building a caring and inclusive society.

In 2014 alone, notable progress can be seen through various labour and welfare policy initiatives. On elderly care, the Old Age Living Allowance has been successfully launched, benefitting over 420 000 elderly people, equivalent to about 40 % of the elderly population. Over 18 000 senior citizens have also been receiving the allowance under the Old Age Allowance Guangdong Scheme since its inception. Taking an innovative and bold step forward, we have adopted a fresh subsidy mode, namely a “money-follows-the user” approach, in implementing a pilot scheme of Community Care Service Voucher for the Elderly to facilitate eligible elders to select the required services according to individual needs. In tandem, we have introduced the Pilot Scheme on Living Allowance for Carers of the Elderly from Low Income Families to enable elders with long-term care needs to receive suitable care and remain to live in their familiar communities under the assistance of their carers.

Furthermore, we have implemented the Special Scheme on Privately Owned Sites for Welfare Uses. Under the guiding principles of optimising the use of land and flexible deployment of resources with the support of the Lotteries Fund, the Scheme encourages social welfare organisations to make better use of their land through in-situ expansion or redevelopment to provide much-needed service places for the elderly and persons with disabilities. To demonstrate the Government’s firm commitment, we have already injected $10 billion from General Revenue into the Lotteries Fund. As a rough estimate, about 17 000 additional service places for the elderly and persons with disabilities are anticipated to be provided in the coming five to 10 years under the Scheme, thereby substantially reducing the waiting time for service places.

The widely welcomed $2 Scheme (Public Transport Fares Concession Scheme for the Elderly and Eligible Persons with Disabilities) is another initiative benefitting the elderly and persons with disabilities. At present, the daily number of passenger trips has exceeded 720 000. The Scheme will be extended to green mini-buses in phases starting from end March this year.

In fact, the total recurrent financial provision under the social welfare portfolio has increased to $56.9 billion in this financial year, representing 18.5% of the total government recurrent expenditure, just after education. Compared to the revised estimate of $51.9 billion in the last financial year, this represents an increase of nearly 10%.

Meanwhile, we have not lost sight of the well-being of the working population. The relevant legislation for statutory paternity leave was passed only three weeks ago and is expected to take effect after the Lunar New Year, presenting parents-to-be with a welcome Christmas gift. Since the introduction of the “dual track” system, over 85 000 low-income employees have also benefitted from the Work Incentive Transport Subsidy Scheme. Moreover, the statutory minimum wage rate has also been raised to $30 per hour, thereby improving the income of grassroots employees. We have also commenced a comprehensive and objective study of the issue of standard working hours.

For the second half of the soccer match, we will certainly not let up our efforts. We will continue to move at full speed to launch people-oriented initiatives, strengthen tripartite partnership among the community, business sector and the Government and complement the work of the Commission on Poverty to provide support for the needy and examine the way forward on retirement protection. Indeed, re-instatement of the Commission on Poverty and setting an official poverty line clearly demonstrate the political courage, determination and commitment of the current-term Government in coming to grips with the poverty issue. Through strenuous efforts by the Government, our poor population has dropped below one million to 970 000 and the poverty rate fallen to 14.5%. Both figures are the lowest in the past five years. Nevertheless, I must stress that we are not, and should not be, moving down the road of welfarism or populism. Our objective, pure and simple, is to strive to build a caring and inclusive society within our capability.

At the beginning of 2015, I sincerely wish that the various livelihood proposals currently being stranded in the Legislative Council as a result of filibustering by some Legislative Council members will be able to go through the “barrier-free access” and receive the green light of the Finance Committee. Among these proposals is the Low-Income Working Family Allowance which aims to ease inter-generational poverty and promote upward mobility while encouraging self-reliance through employment. Some 700 000 grassroots citizens will benefit from the allowance.

Ends