Hong Kong poverty line expected to be set within three months

An official poverty line is expected to be drawn within three months, said a leading professional, as a board of government-appointed experts prepared to hold a meeting on the issue on Monday.

Speaking on a RTHK programme ahead of the meeting, Nelson Chow Wing-sun of the University of Hong Kong’s social work and social administration, said it “could be a start” for the poverty threshold to be set at half of the median household income, if a consensus is reached.

At a later stage, the government could study other taxing structures or welfare transition methods to adjust the net and pinpoint those who are in need, he said.

“The most important part is the measures to be done in the next step,” Chow said. “Setting a line is only a way to find out those who are in need… After that we also need to investigate how much people are in need of assistant in different social welfare aspects such as education and medical service.”

“I do not think there will be any difficulty to set the line within this year,” he said, adding that he hoped and thought it was possible it could be defined within three months.

Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has said on Sunday that a poverty line will be set up in October to help quantify the poverty-stricken population for a focused analysis.