Old folk deserve better

The Government's decision to give elderly social security recipients a $200 grant at Lunar New Year and a $320 grant a year to cover social expenses is a recognition of the fact that old folk do not just eat and sleep. The new grants are a welcome first step towards raising their standard of living, even if it will only be slightly above the subsistence level. But they have not dampened demands for better financial assistance for the elderly. In a letter to legislative councillors, the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, Hong Kong Social Workers' Association and Hong Kong Social Workers' General Union called for an additional $300 increase in Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) monthly rates for single old folk. The three bodies have stuck to the view that these should be $2,300 a month, as suggested in a 1994 survey conducted by Professor Stewart MacPherson of the City University. After taking inflation into account, the rate should now be $2,700. By comparison, the revised CSSA payments for single elderly from April will only be $1,935 a month, a level which social workers say does not allow recipients to live with 'a measure of dignity'. The social welfare sector's response is understandable, for the two new special grants have not changed the fundamentals of the elderly problem in Hong Kong. The fact remains that about 80,000 old people, most of them single and whose number is growing, have been unable to save enough to provide for their old age and have to rely on the CSSA. But the CSSA is not a means of retirement protection; it is a safety net meant to help the vulnerable meet basic needs only. The old age pension scheme, which promised to pay each elderly person $2,300 a month from a levy on all wage earners, could have provided for a decent retirement for all, but was rejected because of doubts over its long-term financial viability. The Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) scheme being set up will provide retirement protection for those now in the workforce, but its benefits will not be felt for at least 20 years. This means the present generation of vulnerable old people can only rely on the CSSA. Indeed, the question that the community needs to face is how we can help the needy elderly in our midst to lead a decent life when the old age pension scheme has been rejected and the MPF will only help the next generation of senior citizens. Most critics' answer is to increase the CSSA payments for the elderly - a move resisted by the Government. Despite being criticised as heartless for saying a single old person could survive on $60 a day, Secretary for Health and Welfare Katherine Fok Lo Shiu-ching has not bowed to pressure for increased payments to this group of vulnerable CSSA clients. She has stuck to the position that the CSSA is not a means of guaranteeing senior citizens a certain lifestyle. 'Those who criticise the CSSA payments for the elderly on the basis that they do not provide the level of financial support envisaged for example in the old age pension scheme or, indeed, in the MPF . . . is like criticising an apple for not producing orange juice,' she said. Deputy Secretary for Health and Welfare Bob Wilson said there was an unfortunate coincidence about the figure, in that $2,300 was promoted by the Government as the amount each of the elderly would get under the aborted old age pension scheme and also the sum proposed in Professor MacPherson's widely publicised report. He insisted, however, that the $2,300 figure was more than enough to meet the basic needs of the old folk. But since society did not have an obligation to help people maintain a certain lifestyle, the Government could not increase the rates for the elderly above the present level - they were based on basic needs budgets carefully drawn up and corroborated by the results of the Household Expenditure Survey. 'We can't take just one category out of the whole system (and raise the rates). It would destroy the consistency of the approach,' said Wilson. In response, social workers have queried the Government's approach. In particular, they argue that it is inappropriate to compare CSSA clients with those in the lowest five per cent income group not receiving public assistance because the latter's financial condition is worse than the former. The Government's counter argument is even if CSSA rates were tagged at the spending level of elderly people in the lowest 20 per cent income group, they would not be much higher because even this group of elderly people do not spend much more. It is a debate in which both sides have a point and neither has succeeded to win over the other. To Nelson Chow Wing-sun, professor of social work at the University of Hong Kong, the key to breaking the impasse lies in making a special case for the elderly as a distinct group that deserves additional help. The case is founded on the fact that the present generation of poor elderly have been unable to provide for themselves through no fault on their part. They are mostly menial workers with little or no education and whose low pay during their working life could afford them little savings. Hong Kong's failure to introduce a retirement protection scheme earlier is to blame for their present plight. Now that the territory has prospered, due in no small part to their labour, it should try to be a bit more generous. Professor Chow's answer is to draw on the territory's fiscal reserves to set up a fund and use its interest to pay for assistance to the elderly to ensure they lead a decent life. Such a fund should be used to top up the CSSA rates, set up a medical scheme for senior citizens and provide home help relief to those awaiting admission to homes for the elderly. His calculation is the three measures would need more than $2 billion a year. A $30 billion fund with a 10 per cent yield should be sufficient to meet demand for the next 20 years. While the need for assistance will grow as the elderly population increases, it should level off in time as the MPF begins to make an impact. Critics will, of course, be able to find fault with Professor Chow's proposal. From the Government's point of view, the reserve, estimated to reach about $151 billion by the transfer of sovereignty next year, is sacrosanct. But it is a proposal well worth exploring if only because it does not translate into a bigger call on recurrent expenditure and is a relatively small reward for the elderly's great contribution to our prosperity. Moreover, Hong Kong's fiscal reserve is set to grow by another $200 billion on July 1, 1997 with the addition of the Special Administrative Region Land Fund now held by the Chinese authorities on the territory's behalf. We should give the elderly their due. They have earned it.