Hongkongers ineligible for Covid-19 financial relief should apply for welfare instead, says minister amid call for residents to be less selfish during the crisis
- Edward Yau calls on residents to see the ‘bigger picture’ rather than focusing on their own finances, relying on government intervention
- He rules out introducing tax changes to encourage a drop in commercial rents during the pandemic
Hongkongers excluded from the government’s biggest coronavirus relief package yet should apply for social security assistance instead because the HK$137.5 billion fund already covers 2 million people and cannot support everyone, the city’s commerce chief said on Sunday as he called for residents to be less selfish during the health crisis.
Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau Tang-wah also ruled out tax incentives to encourage commercial property owners to reduce rents when he made his plea for residents to be more public spirited in the city’s bid to contain the virus.
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“[People cannot] just shirk part of their responsibility or burden to others, such as the government … During the hard times, if people focus on their own finances, and ignore the big picture, all of us will suffer,” Yau said in a pre-recorded interview aired on broadcaster TVB on Sunday.
Some HK$80 billion will be used to pay workers 50 per cent of their salaries for half a year, capped at HK$9,000 a month. Self-employed people will get a one-off subsidy of HK$7,500 on the condition they have an Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) pension scheme account.
Casual workers such as fitness trainers, and the unemployed, have accused the government of ignoring their financial plight during the coronavirus pandemic, saying they had again missed out on this second wave of handouts and subsidies.
But Yau suggested the government had tried its best to include as many people as possible.
“If [a resident] really cannot benefit and becomes unemployed, maybe he needs our unemployment protection [under the social security assistance scheme],” he said.
“It’s difficult for us to use one way to satisfy a 100 per cent [of the population], but we have included more than 2 million people in our direct employment protection plan.”
The government on Wednesday lowered the asset limit for people to qualify for the comprehensive social security assistance scheme, described as a “safety net” for those struggling to support themselves financially.
An able-bodied adult aged under 65 is eligible for HK$2,525 a month through the scheme.
Under the relief measures, HK$21 billion has also been set aside for 16 types of sectors and businesses hit especially hard, from aviation to smaller ventures such as education and tutorial centres and school bus operators.
To the owners of other facilities, such as party rooms, complaining about being left out, Yau said they would benefit under the plan to pay workers half their salaries, as well as the expansion of the financing guarantee scheme for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Yau added that officials had been preparing for the launch of various programmes under the relief package.
It would take about two to three weeks for eligible businesses to receive public funding once the approval of applications had started, he added.
