Appeal against ruling over rent refunds

The government has appealed against a court ruling entitling a dole recipient to rent and rates rebates, which could cost the city millions of dollars worth of payouts.

The Social Welfare Department yesterday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn the judgment that welfare recipient Tang Yee-yu, in her 60s, should get HK$2,397 in rebates under a government relief scheme even though she had never paid for public housing and rates.

The government pays rent and rates directly for tenants on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. During periods when the Housing Authority waives the charges, the government stops paying them.

This means that while people paying from their own pockets had more money to spend, dole recipients did not benefit to the same extent.

In the judgment that Tang won in September last year, Mr Justice David Yam Yee-kwan said that unequal benefit went against the intention of the government's welfare policy, which he said was meant to alleviate hardship.

He awarded Tang HK$2,397 - equal to a rates rebate for the full year 2002 and a rent rebate in February 2007, when payments were waived.

The government is anxious to win the appeal because of the far-reaching effects of the judgment. Since about one-fifth of the 650,000 public-rental households are on the dole, and the city waived rent for seven months between 1997 and 2010, the department might have to recompense HK$807 million for rent alone.