The Social Welfare Department faces paying welfare recipients hundreds of millions of dollars after a judge ruled it had unfairly denied them the benefits of rent and rates concessions.
In a Court of First Instance decision that delighted but shocked one social worker, Mr Justice David Yam Yee-kwan said stopping recipients' allowances for rent and rates in the months when these were waived went against the intention of the government's welfare policy, which he said was to alleviate hardship. The judge said the case could have 'far-reaching implications' involving 'a tremendous sum of money'.
Yam awarded Tang Yee-yu HK$2,397, equal to a rates rebate for all of 2002 and a rent rebate in February 2007. Tang, a resident of Shau Kei Wan's Hing Tung Estate, went to court after the Small Claims Tribunal rejected the matter three times, saying it was outside its scope. But Yam said the tribunal could have handled it.
The government pays rent and rates directly for tenants on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. When the charges were waived, it stopped paying them, meaning that while people paying from their own pockets had more money to spend, dole recipients did not.
'This case only involves the three small claims sought by Madam Tang, but if the government accepts my judgment, it will have a far-reaching effect,' Yam said. 'The government should release the money back to CSSA claimants.'
Since about a fifth of the 650,000 public rental households are on the dole and the government waived rent for seven months between 1997 and 2010, the department could have to repay HK$807 million for rent alone.
