A CONCERN group for the elderly has asked the Government to review a social security assistance scheme which became effective yesterday.
Six members of the Association for the Rights of the Elderly petitioned Government House, urging Governor Chris Patten to fulfil a pledge they said he had made in a policy speech last October.
Holding a banner of ''Governor telling lies, promise not honoured'', they said Mr Patten had promised a 15 per cent real increase in public assistance this year.
The Social Welfare Department said an undertaking had never been given for 15 per cent across the board increases. Recipients get four to 36 per cent more under the new scheme.
An elderly person now gets $1,550 a month, excluding the old aged allowance of $510 a month which remains unchanged.
But group members said the elderly would be hard hit by a corresponding increase in welfare charges such as hostel fees.
Leung Sui-ying, 76, a widow who lives alone in a 150 square feet unit at the Lower Shekkipmei Estate, was sceptical about the Government's public assistance scheme.