Former adviser warns Leung of middle-class backlash over welfare spending

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying will find it more difficult to govern in the face of a middle-class backlash over the city's rising spending on welfare, a former top government adviser says.

Professor Lau Siu-kai, former head of the Central Policy Unit, a key official think tank, said the billions of dollars promised to the poor in the policy address had sparked concerns about "creeping welfarism" and the sustainability of public finances among middle-class Hongkongers, who shoulder the lion's share of the city's tax burden.

He warned that Leung's spending plans may be sowing the seeds of conflict between the middle class and low-income residents.

"People of middle-class background generally feel they get little benefit from the policy address," Lau said. "The anxiety and grievance among the middle class will intensify the conflict between them and low-income groups."

Lau, now a professor emeritus of sociology at Chinese University, said previous studies conducted by the university found the middle class were generally in favour of social justice but had reservations about big rises in welfare spending.

He said the poverty alleviation measures announced in the policy address, such as the HK$3 billion-per-year Low-Income Working Family Allowance, would condition underprivileged groups to expect more government handouts.

Depending on the hours they work, families whose income falls below the poverty line - drawn at 50 per cent of median household income (HK$22,500) - will receive either HK$600 or HK$1,000 a month, plus HK$400 or HK$800 a month for each dependent child.