POOR families and the elderly will suffer further if Governor Chris Patten does not relax the criteria for public assistance and increase the payment rate in his policy address, social workers say.
Their concerns have been fuelled by the scrapping of the proposed Old Age Pension Scheme and the high jobless rate.
They say Mr Patten, who got only a narrow pass for his performance on social welfare, should act now otherwise he may fail next year.
Mr Patten's policies scored an average of 61 out of 100: 65 for care of the elderly; 71 for the disabled; 54 for family care; and 54 for child and youth services.
The scores were the averages of marks given by: Hui Yin-fat, former Legco representative of the social services sector; Eric Li Ka-cheung, chairman of the Social Welfare Advisory Committee; Nelson Chow Wing-sun, former chairman of the advisory committee and lecturer in Hong Kong University's Department of Social Work and Social Administration; and Choi Shing-kiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union.
Mr Hui, director of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, said: 'Mr Patten announced many measures to improve the living standards of the elderly, but he failed to get full marks, because many of the jobs have yet to be completed'.
'Some social centres for the elderly, for instance, have yet to be set up because of difficulty securing premises.' Professor Chow was unhappy about the slow progress in a unit set up last year at secretariat level to study a centralised waiting list for elderly entering different residential homes.
