Legco set to discuss increase in welfare payments, but many fear changes will not go far enough
Calls for greater support for recipients, as social workers say many are forced to skip meals due to the high cost of housing
Chor Ping-kay has been skipping breakfast for months and now he wonders when he is going to have to opt out of lunch too.
The 46-year-old man subsisting on welfare payments is paying HK$2,400 per month for a dilapidated squatter hut in Tuen Mun, and occasionally sees snakes and mice where he lives.
An unstable electricity supply has made cooking impossible, Chor claims, forcing him to eat at nearby restaurants where the cheapest dish still costs him HK$30. To complicate matters, he is unable to work because of chronic illness.
Chor is among the 49.3 per cent of the some 30,000 Comprehensive Social Security Assistance recipients living in private housing whose rent allowance does not cover their actual rent.
“I need to pay HK$600 out of basic allowance per month for rent,” he said. “The landlord is going to raise the rent again next year … perhaps in future living in public parks would be a more feasible option – at least I do not have to pay rent.”
Perhaps in future living in public parks would be a more feasible option