The Social Welfare Department is under fire for disqualifying an elderly couple from welfare payments because the value of their ancestral home on the mainland has been pushed up by the appreciating yuan.
The pair, who had been receiving comprehensive social security assistance for 11 years, suddenly became ineligible two months ago after the department discovered their house in Guangdong was worth HK$60,000, which is above the HK$54,000 asset limit for a couple.
A volunteer group that provides food for the couple, both in their 70s, says they derive no benefit from the house because it is too dilapidated to be sold or rented out.
Lawmaker Peter Cheung Kwok-che (pictured), a member of the legislature's welfare services panel, said the department was being too bureaucratic. 'It is always very strict in handling marginal cases but is very lax in conducting investigations to crack down on fraudulent claims,' Cheung said. 'That is ridiculous.'
The couple, who do not want to be identified, had been receiving about HK$5,200 a month previously.
Now, they get only HK$2,800, made up of the old age allowance and special subsidies for the disabled; more than half of that sum goes into paying the HK$1,700 rent on their public flat in Sham Shui Po. The wife is disabled as a result of a stroke.
