'I won - but welfare stigma puts me off'
Kong Yunming says her court victory was about finding closure - she would rather work than be considered a 'leech on government'
She may have won her seven-year court battle to be eligible for social security, but Kong Yunming does not plan to accept government welfare just yet.
"I still don't want to be on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance - the discrimination and stigma that comes with it is too great. If I can help it, I won't go down that road," said Kong, who yesterday won her fight to allow non-permanent residents over the age of 18 to claim CSSA, Hong Kong's catch-all welfare payment.
Kong's local husband died the day she arrived from the mainland on a one-way permit in 2005. She was immediately made homeless as the Housing Authority reclaimed her husband's flat.
Kong spent her first year in Hong Kong living in homeless shelters and sometimes sleeping rough, while she worked as a stand-in security guard, earning an hourly salary slightly above HK$10 in the days before the minimum wage, earning her roughly HK$2,000 per month.
The government rejected Kong's application for CSSA in 2006 because she had not lived in the city for seven years. While some recent arrivals have been granted CSSA on a discretionary basis, Kong was not and instead embarked on the long journey of seeking a judicial review, which ended in a Court of Final Appeal victory yesterday.
"The biggest blow was my husband's death, and then having nowhere to live," Kong said. "I was at the end of my tether, or else I would not have applied for CSSA."