Poverty Alleviation and Retirement Protection

92 Pages·2017·7.39 MB·English

Poverty Alleviation and
Retirement Protection
Progress and Vision
Self-reliance
Upward
Retirement
Mobility
Protection
Social
Innovation
Poverty
Alleviation
Chief Secretary for Administration’s Office
January 2017
Designed by the Information Services Department
Printed by the Government Logistics Department
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government
Contents
Contents
Executive Summary
Chapter 1: Poverty Alleviation — Philosophy and Institution Set-up
Our Philosophy 10
Reinstating the Commission on Poverty 10
Expenditure on Poverty Alleviation 12
Setting the Official Poverty Line 13
Poverty Situation of Hong Kong in Recent Years 14
Challenges on Poverty Alleviation arising from Population Ageing 18
Chapter 2: Poverty Alleviation — Progress Achieved
Role of the Government 22
Elderly Poverty 24
Working Poor 25
Upward Mobility of Young People from Underprivileged Background 27
Support for the Disadvantaged 29
Community Care Fund 33
Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Fund 35
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Chapter 3: Full Range of Support for Retirement Protection
“Retirement Protection Forging Ahead” public engagement exercise 42
• Major public views 43
Demographic, fiscal, elderly poverty, etc. considerations 46
Government’s comprehensive policy response 50
• Reinforcing the multi-pillar system 50
Enhancing the multi-tiered social security pillar 52
• Providing additional targeted support for elderly persons under OALA 54
• Enhancing the CSSA application arrangement for elderly persons 59
Improving the public services pillar 62
• Extending the coverage of the medical fee waiver system 62
• Enhancing the Elderly Health Care Voucher Scheme 63
• Enhancing medical services for elderly persons 64
Enhancing the MPF pillar 66
• Abolishing the “offsetting” arrangement 68
• Developing the eMPF platform 81
Making the voluntary savings pillar more assured 82
• Supporting elderly persons in investment management 82
• Encouraging voluntary savings 82
Measures already introduced 83
Government’s financial commitment under the package 84
Conclusion 85
Chapter 4: Our Vision
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Executive
Summary
Executive
Summary
Poverty Alleviation and Retirement Protection:
Progress and Vision
Executive Summary
1. In December 2012, this term of the Government reinstated the Commission on
Poverty (CoP) which is chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration, with four
Directors of Bureau and 20 non-officials from different fields as members. In the
past four years or so, the CoP has been working closely with the Government in
combating poverty. The CoP has spared no efforts in taking forward various
initiatives from formulating the official poverty line, developing and launching the
Low-income Working Family Allowance, mounting the territory-wide retirement
protection consultation exercise to strengthening support for disadvantaged
groups, enhancing upward mobility for young people with grassroots background,
and furthering the work of the Community Care Fund and social innovations.
Apart from providing the Government with constructive advice, the CoP has also
participated actively in various activities. This booklet has reviewed the work of the
CoP in the past.
2. Last June, the CoP completed a six-month public engagement exercise on
retirement protection. After taking into account the public views and ensuring
the sustainability of our financial commitment, the Government has formulated
a package of measures to strengthen each pillar, as a comprehensive response to
the public aspiration for enhancing retirement protection. We will provide in this
booklet a full account of the Government’s proposals.
3. Salient features of the retirement protection package include-
Reinforcing the multi-pillar system
(a) Hong Kong should continue to adopt a multi-pillar retirement protection model
that underlines the principle of shared responsibility among individuals/families,
employers and the Government. We should strengthen each of the existing pillars
while maintaining the affordability and financial sustainability of the system;
Enhancing the multi-tiered social security pillar
(b) adding a higher tier of assistance under the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA) by
providing a higher monthly allowance of $3,435 per person for elderly persons
with more financial needs who are eligible for the allowance, i.e. elderly singletons
with assets not exceeding $144,000 or elderly couples with assets not exceeding
$218,000; and relaxing the asset limits for the existing OALA1 from $225,000 to
$329,000 for elderly singletons and from $341,000 to $499,000 for elderly couples
to benefit more elderly persons with financial needs;
(c) while maintaining the requirement that applicants under the Comprehensive
Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme will need to apply on a household basis,
abolishing the arrangement for the relatives concerned to make a declaration
1 The existing asset limits refer to the limits to take effect on 1 February 2017.
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on whether they provide the elderly persons who apply for CSSA on their own
(e.g. an elderly person who does not live with his children) with financial support
(the so-called “bad son statement”). The information should be submitted by the
elderly applicants only;
(d) raising the eligibility age for elderly CSSA from 60 to 65 to align with the direction
of our population policy on the extension of retirement age. Elderly persons aged
between 60 and 64 who are receiving CSSA before the new policy takes effect will,
however, not be affected;
Meeting the healthcare needs of elderly persons better
(e) granting medical fee waivers automatically to older and more needy OALA
recipients (i.e. OALA recipients aged 75 or above and with assets not exceeding
$144,000 for singletons or $218,000 for couples) in receiving services from the
public medical system;
(f) lowering the eligibility age for the Elderly Health Care Voucher from 70 to 65;
(g) providing Hospital Authority with additional $2 billion recurrent resources from
2017-18 to improve medical services for the elderly and other patients and reduce
waiting time. Services provided by the Department of Health’s Elderly Health
Centres and Visiting Health Teams will also be enhanced;
Enhancing the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) System
(h) abolishing progressively the “offsetting” arrangement through three key measures -
(i) abolishing the “offsetting” arrangement with effect from a prospective date
(the Effective Date) and putting in place an arrangement to “grandfather”
the accrued benefits from employers’ MPF contributions before the Effective
Date and the returns derived therefrom for “offsetting” against the severance
payment (SP) /long service payment (LSP) payable for the employment period
before the Effective Date;
(ii) reducing the SP/LSP amount for the employment period from the Effective
Date from the existing entitlement of two-thirds of the monthly wage to half a
month’s wage as compensation for each year of service; and
(iii) providing time-limited government subsidy to phase in employers’
responsibility for SP/LSP in the absence of the “offsetting” arrangement over a
period of ten years from the Effective Date;
(i) tasking the MPF Authority to explore the feasibility of developing a centralised
electronic platform, eMPF, to streamline and standardise the operation of the MPF
System with a view to further reducing fees; and
Supporting elderly persons in investment management
(j) exploring the feasibility of a public annuity scheme, Silver Bond of longer tenor, etc.
to help elderly persons annuitise lump-sum assets into a steady stream of monthly
income.
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Chapter 1:
Poverty Alleviation —
Philosophy and Institutional Set-up
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