I would like to clarify a few points made by Sharon Eldridge in her article 'Opening the cage' (Sunday Post Magazine, March 17), in which I was described as, 'the street fighter of Hong Kong for his terrier-like championing of the destitute', who 'appeared to have left his boxing gloves at home', and 'downright pessimistic'. I am sorry to let Eldridge down by not sharing her optimism. On the other hand, I was pleased to note how generous your readers were in a concerted bid to help Leung Chun out of the miserable cage home. But our long-term experience reminded us that we must cautiously handle cases of elderly people settling in China for good. According to Hong Kong's social welfare policy, donations to a recipient of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) should be reported to the Social Welfare Department. Ms Leung is a CSSA recipient. A big donation to her may result in the reduction or termination of CSSA payments. We should try to avoid doing bad things out of goodwill. That explains the reason behind our repeated contacts with the department before we finally succeeded in getting approval for Ms Leung to accept the donation. It is our job to make sure that offers of money do not jeopardise Ms Leung's entitlement to CSSA. If Ms Leung leaves Hong Kong for more than 180 days, her payment will be cut. If she chooses to settle in China for good, her entitlement will be terminated. As a non-citizen in China, Ms Leung would face enormous medical bills, and there certainly would be other costly living expenses. The $18,000 raised by your newspaper, I am sorry to say, would be too small to sustain her for the rest of her life. At first glance, it would seem a good thing that Ms Leung could move away from her cage home. But the last thing we want to see is her jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. HO HEI WAH Director Society for Community Organisation
