Fears that the legal standing of cohabiting partners could be strengthened have been stoked by a government plan that would allow 'two-person households' to apply for transport subsidies, regardless of marital status. The scheme, whose funding will be voted on by lawmakers on Friday, would allow couples who together earn less than HK$10,000 a month to apply for the subsidy. Each would receive HK$600 a month. Critics ranging from religious groups to social workers said the scheme set a bad precedent, with some raising the possibility of gay couples getting government benefits. Some senior officials said they had not intended to open the gates to cohabiting partners; they were only trying to include more people in the $HK4.3 billion programme. One senior government official said: 'I have not been told the government's general policy on unmarried couples has changed.' The director of the Catholic Diocese's social communications office, Dominic Yung, said the move 'could be dangerous'. 'The church's position on this issue is very firm,' Yung said, 'that unmarried couples should not be recognised the same as married couples. Officials should be more careful on this and should not rush through this scheme hastily.' Choi Chi-sum, general secretary of the Society for Truth and Light, a Protestant group, said the government was making a simple issue complicated. 'Why can't they allow these cohabiting persons to apply as individuals?' Choi asked. 'If this scheme is approved, then can unmarried couples claim married couple tax allowances, apply for public housing and get other welfare payments? 'If the answer is no, then officials will have to explain why this transport subsidy scheme is different from other social programmes. And how about same-sex couples? Are they going to be allowed to claim the transport subsidy?' A similar controversy erupted in 2009 when officials tried to include same-sex couples in the Domestic Violence Ordinance. With religious and gay groups deadlocked, officials renamed the bill the Domestic and Cohabitation Relationships Violence Ordinance and used a gender-neutral definition of cohabitation. A senior government official familiar with the issue said the current move was aimed at including more people in the scheme. 'We did that with a good intention,' he said. 'But we have now heard some different voices and we will look into it.' The intention to allow unmarried couples to claim a transport subsidy was revealed on Friday when the government announced details of the scheme in a briefing for editors. An official said 'cohabiting couples who live like husbands and wives' could apply as two-person households, but did not say how this would be defined. A Labour and Welfare Bureau spokesman said last night the means test for the transport subsidy applied to a household - core family members or others who had close economic ties and were sharing resources. 'The earlier reference to 'co-habitant' is meant to be only an example of household members with close economic ties,' he said. Social welfare sector lawmaker Peter Cheung Kwok-che said it was 'strange and bizarre' that the government regarded cohabiting partners as a household for the travel allowance. 'It has huge implications for ethical issues in society,' he said. 'The government should clarify its rationale, or else there will be a repeat of the controversy over the domestic violence law amendment.' University of Hong Kong professor Nelson Chow Wing-sun, of the department of social work and social administration, said: 'If this happens, people will demand cohabiting partners be recognised in other government policies and that will create lots of confusion and problems.' Welcome help The monthly travel allowance for eligible individuals under the scheme is: $600