Officials were accused yesterday of hearing only what they wanted to hear among public reactions to the review of social security assistance.
Ho Wing-him, Deputy Secretary for Health and Welfare, told the Legco welfare panel that of the 2,602 submissions, 1,900 - mostly in standardised printed form - were received in the last three days of the consultation, which ended on January 20.
Most of the submissions received earlier supported the government proposals, Mr Ho said.
Of deep concern was whether children of single parents who received Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) would be given enough care following the proposal that the parents must go out to work when their children reached 12.
Mr Ho said the public supported the proposal to require unemployed recipients to do community work.
'But some were worried the administrative cost would be great,' he said.
The public urged the Government to deploy more manpower to prevent abuses of the scheme.
