MARGINAL improvements in services for the elderly had been proposed only to mislead the public, groups representing the elderly said yesterday.
The aged also expressed disappointment the Government had not increased their monthly allowance.
The chairman of the Association for the Rights of the Elderly, Kwok Lit-tung, said the address made 'no breakthrough' on elderly issues.
While Mr Patten had raised the welfare allowance for the elderly in 1992 and came up with proposals for the old age pension last year, there was nothing exciting this year.
'This year, the Governor presented a variety of improvement on services for the elderly but they're just marginal improvements,' he said. 'This is rather misleading to the public who might think he'd done a lot.' Critics noted that 80 per cent of the recommendations by a government-commissioned working group studying elderly services had not been adopted.
Mr Patten said the Government was spending $6.8 billion on elderly services this year and would continue to implement the key targets in the 1991 White Paper 'Social Welfare into the 1990s and Beyond'.
He promised 12 specific initiatives to improve services for the elderly based on the recommendations of the Working Group on Care for the Elderly.