Poverty is not a sin

Iwas outraged when I first heard the news that the government was planning to impose a time limit on unemployed people receiving welfare. A few moments later, I just felt sad.

It is the worst time for the poor in this city since I started working as a social worker, 28 years ago. When I first worked in the community, people were able to improve their living by their own efforts. They could turn their lives around.

They could work in factories; do extra work to earn more money. People would help one another when they faced difficulties. But those were the good old days.

The changes in our economic structure have made a lot of people jobless, thus forcing many to rely on welfare. But the worst thing is that our government is always trying to give the impression that these poor people are a burden to the economy and the society as a whole.

Officials have repeatedly played up stories of people cheating and lying in order to qualify for welfare, and even insinuated that welfare recipients are lazy people.

I have come across cases where dole recipients do not dare tell their neighbours that they are unemployed, and go out every morning pretending they are going to work. Children will be teased by their schoolmates if their parents are on welfare. This is one of the reasons why there are so many family conflicts and tragedies happening in Hong Kong.

Some government officials keep saying that dole recipients need to adapt to changes. But many of these people were forced to leave school to work after primary education in the 1960s and 1970s, because they had to take care of their families.