Paying for civil servants' children to be educated in Britain is an outdated policy which should be reviewed, legislators argued yesterday.
The Government plans to stop giving the allowance to new recruits from next month.
Current employees will keep the benefit, which costs an estimated total of $400 million last year.
Deputy Secretary for Civil Service Michael Stone told the Legislative Council Public Services panel this would avoid the accusation of changing civil servants' terms of employment.
But legislators were worried about continuing the policy after the handover.
Independent Emily Lau Wai-hing said $400 million was too much to spend on the 3,653 youngsters who were eligible during 1995-96.
'The burden for taxpayers is really heavy. How long do they have to go on bearing it when there are still 180,000 civil servants who can claim the benefit at any time during their service?' she said.
